Seeing Differently
by Sivany
Summary: It’s our choices that make us who we are, but what happens when we don't make a choice? A new arrival at Hogwarts has many people seeing things differently and even Draco, Harry, Hermione and Ron might find their ways of thinking changing.
1. Obliged To Offer A Service

**Seeing Differently**

**Disclaimer: **Everything about Harry Potter and his world belongs to J K Rowling; I'm just borrowing it. The only things I own are the plotline and the characters that I've made up myself. My own characters are purely fictional and from my own head, any relation to other fictional characters or actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

**Summary: **It's our choices that make us who we are, but what happens when a spirited girl with no prejudices arrives at Hogwarts and allows the Sorting Hat to make her choice for her?

**Authors Notes:** This story is something I never thought I would write, as it contains a lot of elements I never thought I'd include in one of my stories. For a start it introduces non J K Rowling characters in the form of the first years, it is from their point of view that most of the story is told. Secondly it also completely ignores the events of the sixth book, at the beginning of the story Harry is only just starting his sixth year at Hogwarts. Finally although there may be occasional references to things that actually happen in the sixth book for the most part this story will follow it's own plot. Ok now that's out of the way I hope I haven't put you off reading, I just have a few more things to add before the story begins.

Firstly the surname of my main character was in no way intended to be translated (as for example Draco Malfoy is) as far as I know it has no translation; it is simply a name I made up that sounded French.

Now last but not least I hope you enjoy reading this story and will be kind enough to review once you have read this chapter. Let me know where I've gone wrong, what I've done right and if you are enjoying it so far. Now assuming you're still with me and haven't fallen asleep, on with the story!

**Chapter 1: **Obliged To Offer A Service

"Get the post will you Maddie?"

Madeline groaned and dragged herself over to the window to untie the post from the owls' legs. They waited obediently as she paid for the family's Daily Prophet, wrestled with the knots on the weekly letter from Auntie Rosemary and finally untied an old fashioned looking envelope addressed to herself. One by one the owls flew off as they were relieved of their burdens and Maddie threw the post to the table, eager to examine her own letter. Already she could feel her heart thumping harder in her chest, could this letter be about her schooling next year? She hadn't heard anything yet and she was beginning to worry that maybe she hadn't been given a place in any magical school although she hadn't shared this worry with her parents.

Her heart leapt as she pulled out the parchment and saw the heading: "Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Bacon Maddie?" her mother was asking, but Maddie just sat dumbly a huge grin plastered on her face, her deep green eyes sparkling with happiness.

"Earth to Maddie." Her sister joked, waving a hand in front of her face. Suddenly to everyone's surprise Maddie leapt up from the table with a huge whoop of delight. Her mother only just managed to stop the bacon going on the floor as Maddie flung her arms around her.

"I got in! I got in!" she yelled, "I'm going to Hogwarts!"

It was several minutes before Maddie calmed down enough to examine the rest of the letter and several more before her mother managed to extract the equipment list and agree that they should go to Diagon Alley to purchase them that day.

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A few hours later Maddie, her mum, dad and sister were all standing in Diagon Alley ready to purchase Maddie's school supplies.

"Robes first." said her mother briskly, guiding them all towards Madam Malkins. Inside several other students were being measured for robes and when Maddie's turn came she found herself standing next to a tall red haired boy who looked a lot older and a lot more grown up than she felt right now.

"Mum, mum, look. It's Harry Potter." Her sister was whispering rather loudly as she tugged at her mums robes.

"Vincenza! Don't be so rude." Her mother reprimanded sharply before turning to a dark haired boy with an apologetic smile. Maddie hadn't noticed him standing there before talking with his red haired friend, but now he turned and smiled at her and Maddie caught a glimpse of his famous scar under his messy hair.

"Is it your first year at Hogwarts?" he asked. Maddie nodded dumbly, trying not to stare at his scar. "You'll love it there, don't be too nervous about the sorting, it's not as bad as everyone makes out." Maddie grinned, not really sure what to say. "I'm Harry, this is Ron." He continued in a friendly tone "We're in Gryffindor."

"I'm Maddie." Having finally found her voice, Maddie managed to shake the hands both Harry and Ron offered in her direction. "Nice to meet you."

"Well I guess we'll see you around school then." Harry finished as he and Ron gathered their purchases and started to head to the door.

"Bye." She called after them as they turned and gave her friendly waves.

As soon as the door closed Maddie's mum began scolding Vinny all over again about how it was rude to point at people and how Harry wasn't some sort of trophy to ogled over. Maddie though was just happy to have met someone friendly from the school, even if they were two boys who were a lot older and who she would probably never speak to again. The nervous knot that had been forming in her stomach ever since she read her letter loosened itself a little.

Maddie didn't see the two boys again as her mother hurried her to various shops, purchasing books, cauldrons, ingredients and much more, until her father was weighed down with packages. The last thing on the list was a wand, which they purchased from Ollivander's. Maddie was very proud of her unicorn hair and dragon heartstring yew wand, it was n unusual combination Ollivander had said, very good for charm work.

Finally all that was left to purchase was an owl, which Maddie's mum had promised to get her. Whilst they went into Eeylop's, Vinny and her dad went into Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. Ten minutes later Maddie emerged carrying a magnificent snowy owl in a large gold cage, and Vinny cuddling a tiny Pygmy Puff she had convinced their father to buy for her.

After a brief look round Quality Quidditch Supplies they made their way back home, Maddie resolving to read all her set books before the beginning of the year and Vinny talking excitedly about her new Pygmy Puff and trying to think up names for it.

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September came round slowly for Maddie. Sometimes she wished she could speed the days up so they all rushed by in a blur, but she couldn't, so the days followed one another in the same neat and ordered way they had always done until eventually September arrived and Maddie was on her way to the station.

At the barrier between platforms nine and ten Maddie's parents said their goodbyes.

"Do be careful dear, you know how dangerous things are now." Said her mum worriedly, giving her another hug. "And try your best in all your lessons."

"I know you'll make us proud darling." Her dad smiled as he gave her a hug.

"Off you go now." Urged her mum "We don't want you to miss your train."

Maddie nodded and began pushing her trolley towards the barrier, the knot in her stomach twisting tighter as she turned to wave. She caught a glimpse of her sister hopping around excitedly, waving and yelling goodbye before she felt herself pass through the wall and onto platform nine and three quarters.

At once she stopped in amazement at the sight of the enormous steam train standing puffing at the platform. Students of all ages hurried around greeting each other in loud voices. Some like herself wore their school robes already, whilst others were dressed in muggle clothing. Some strode around confidently laughing with their friends whilst the younger ones who were first years like herself hung back shyly with their parents.

Grinning from ear to ear Maddie pushed her trolley over to an open doorway and began to try and heave her trunk onto the train. Her grin soon faded as she realised the trunk was far too heavy for her to lift and she resorted to edging it up onto the train inch by inch. Soon she was panting and sweating from the effort, but knew she couldn't take a break, if she did the trunk would slip and all her hard work would be lost.

"Need a hand there?" Maddie looked up at the offer of help. It wasn't an offer of kindness she noticed, there was no warmth in the voice, its tone was polite and cold as if this service was something the owner of the voice felt obliged to offer. Still an offer was an offer, she clearly wasn't getting anywhere by herself so she nodded up at the pale blonde owner of the voice.

"Yes please." She nodded, moving away from her trunk to give him room. To her surprise though the boy didn't move, instead he turned to two huge tough looking boys standing next to him.

"Give her a hand you two." He ordered and immediately they began hauling the trunk onto the train. Maddie was rather surprised at this, who was this tall blonde who could order around others so easily? Especially two who seemed so tough, they looked as if they could easily knock out the tall slender boy if they wanted to, yet here they were doing exactly as he told them without any complaint. They must be a bit stupid she thought to herself, perhaps this pale boy was the brains and they were the muscle in some little gang. That sounded about right. Maddie wasn't stupid; she knew how things like this worked.

"Thanks." She addressed herself to the blonde boy as she said this, even though he hadn't really done any of the actual work, she knew it was what was expected and she wasn't about to get on the wrong side of someone who obviously held a lot of power over other students. The two lackeys, as Maddie now thought of them, managed to get the trunk wedged into a compartment and Maddie followed with her owl.

"What's your name?" The blonde one asked. Maddie was a little unsure why he was asking, after all he had done what he obviously considered his duty by helping her and he was a lot older than her, he couldn't be looking for her friendship.

"Madeline LeCardieu." She replied a little nervously "But everyone calls me Maddie."

"Draco Malfoy and this is Crabbe and Goyle." The boy stated, jerking his thumb at the other two as he spoke. "Are you related to Helena LeCardieu?"

"She's my great aunt." Maddie blinked in surprise as Draco asked about her relative who lived in France, Maddie hadn't seen her since she was younger but she'd heard she was quite high up in the French Ministry of Magic. How did Draco know her? The question was soon answered.

"My father knows her." Draco continued, looking at Maddie with slightly more interest. "Well I suppose we better be going." He turned and exited before Maddie even had chance to respond, Crabbe and Goyle trailed out after him, leaving Maddie sitting alone in her compartment. She was a little confused about the meeting, at first Draco had seemed to regard her as someone he was helping to do his duty, but then when she mentioned her name he had seemed to look at her with more interest. Maddie hoped he didn't want her to join his little 'gang', she certainly wasn't about to start running round after him no matter how powerful he was.

The name Malfoy rang a bell as well, Maddie tried to remember what her mother had told her. The Malfoys were an old pure blood wizarding family like the LeCardieu's she recalled, her mother hadn't been very complimentary about them though, something about their father being in Azkaban on Death Eater charges? Maddie shivered slightly, she might be from a pure blood family but they had never had any time for Voldemort and his followers. The LeCardieu's were nobody's followers her father had always said. Besides the muggles let them live in peace nowadays, so why shouldn't they allow the muggles to do the same and if the odd one turned out to have magical abilities there was nothing wrong with that either. They had ridden out Voldemort's reign of terror by keeping themselves to themselves they had told her, speaking out for neither side and as far as Maddie knew that was what they planned on doing this time.

Her thoughts were interrupted as the train began to move and she watched as the station began to slide past the window before her carriage emerged into the open air and the houses around them started to blur as the train picked up speed. At first Maddie sat looking out the window wondering what Hogwarts would be like, but after about an hour she began to get bored of this and was just thinking about getting a book out of her trunk when the door to her compartment slid open again.

Draco Malfoy strode in, followed by his henchmen who closed the door roughly behind them.

"You don't mind if we join you do you?" It was really more of a statement than a question and before Maddie had time to respond Draco had sat himself down opposite her and spread his legs along the seat. Crabbe and Goyle plonked themselves heavily on the seat next to her, although thankfully nearer the door than to her.

Realising that she was wrinkling her nose at them in disgust Maddie turned away quickly, not wanting to appear rude and fearing that the older boy opposite her might have noticed. She glanced over at him and realised that he had, all he did though was give her a strange sort of smirk and bend his knees up so he could rest his arms on them.

"So which house do you think you'll be in?" Draco asked after a few minutes silence. Maddie looked at him in alarm, this wasn't something she had thought about much. She knew their were four houses at Hogwarts and that there was some sort of ceremony to decide which one you were placed in, but apart from that she didn't know much about it. After Harry had told her it wasn't that bad she hadn't really worried about it, assuming that it would be all sorted out once she got there.

"I don't know, I don't really know much about them." She confessed. Immediately she sensed this was the wrong thing to say as Draco's lip curled a little in disgust.

"What do you mean you don't know, you are a pureblood aren't you?" He was looking at her a little suspiciously now as if he suspected she had been lying to him. "What about your parents, they must have told you something? Or did they not raise you?" It was a strange question Maddie thought, and a rather impolite and personal one as well, but she didn't like the look Draco was giving her so she hurriedly explained.

"My parents were brought up in France, they went to Beaubaxtons. So did all my relatives." She frowned at him a little; just enough to let him know what she thought of his next question "Of course they raised me." She spat that last statement out a little more viciously than she intended, and for a moment was uneasy about how Draco might react. He did raise one eyebrow a little in surprise, but gave her a look that implied he would let her tone of voice graciously slide this time.

Maddie suddenly didn't care, who did this boy think he was anyway, the Minister for Magic? His father was in Azkaban; he didn't have that much to be proud of.

"Well that would explain it then." He mused half to himself before continuing "Four houses, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor and Slytherin." Maddie noticed his lip curl again as he mentioned Gryffindor and she remembered that was the house Harry and Ron had told her they were in. "I'm in Slytherin." Draco continued, "That's the best house naturally." He smirked at her again. You'll be sorted into a house depending on which traits you share with the founder who gave his name to that house. Supposedly Hufflepuffs are loyal, Ravenclaws value learning, Gryffindors are brave…" again his lip curled as he said this "and Slytherins are cunning. If you ask me though Gryffindors are just stupid."

"Why?" The question slipped out before Maddie could stop it and Draco hesitated for a moment looking confused, before he sneered slightly.

"They just are. You'll see. I don't expect you would understand being in first year."

Maddie said nothing she merely raised her eyebrows at him, letting him know that this wasn't a comment she took kindly to. Draco stared back and suddenly you could cut the atmosphere in the compartment with a knife. Before either one could say anything though it was broken by the arrival of a lady who popped her head round the compartment door.

"Anything from the trolley dears?"

Maddie turned to look, any annoyance with Draco forgotten as she gazed at the piles of treats. In the end she bought rather a lot, as did Crabbe and Goyle. Draco bought a couple of chocolate frogs and retired back to his seat.

There was silence in the compartment for a while, broken only by the rather noisy eating of Crabbe and Goyle. Maddie tried to ignore it as she bit the head off her second chocolate frog and examined her cards.

"Who did you get?" Maddie looked up at the question to see Draco gazing at her a sort of half smile playing across his lips as if he found something rather funny.

"Nicholas Flammel." Maddie replied, throwing it across to him "And Gildroy Lockheart." Draco looked surprised at Maddie throwing the card to him rather unceremoniously, but caught it deftly. Maddie had to hide her laughter as she realised Draco was probably more used to having things handed to him reverently by Crabbe and Goyle. "Who did you get?" She asked, realising he was waiting for her to ask the question and her curiosity making her oblige.

Slowly Draco turned the card round, a smile actually flitting across her face as Maddie's mouth fell open. Gazing up at her from the card was none other than Helena LeCardieu, her great auntie.

"I didn't know she was on these cards!" she squealed when she recovered her power of speech and began bouncing up and down in her seat. "This is so cool!" Draco gave a short laugh and threw the card over to her, Maddie wasn't such a good catch and it fell to the floor, where she dived to pick it up. It wasn't until she sat back in her seat that she realised Draco had actually been laughing at her rather immature reaction and she blushed rather violently, bending her head to examine the card to hide her red cheeks.

After a moment she held the card back out to Draco, and was a little surprised when he shook his head.

"Keep it, I don't collect them." He said it flippantly, again it wasn't a kind gesture, his tone implied that he was far too old for something so trivial as collecting chocolate frog cards.

Shrugging and not really caring if he thought she was babyish Maddie stowed the cards away in her trunk. What did he expect? After all she was a first year, she figured that gave her licence to do a few immature things.

Draco had his legs up on the seat again, arms resting on his knees and was now staring at the opposite wall of the compartment lost in thought. Maddie left him for a few minutes, concentrating on munching her way through a carton of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. After a while though she felt it was only polite to offer him some, after all he had helped her earlier and given her his cards even if neither gesture had been done out of kindness.

Draco looked surprised at her offer, as if it wasn't something he expected, but helped himself to a handful and lapsed back into silence as he ate them. Maddie was beginning to get rather bored, she actually wished she could wander round the train to try and find some more first years before they arrived at Hogwarts station, but she wasn't sure if she was allowed and besides she felt it might be a little rude to leave now.

To alleviate the boredom she began throwing the beans into the air attempting to catch them in her mouth. Her and Vinny had been practising over the holidays, but she still wasn't that good. One of the beans bounced off her nose and onto Goyle's lap, he grunted, looked at her, looked at the bean and then popped it into his mouth. Maddie wasn't that bothered, it wasn't like she would eat it after it had been on his robes; the way he was eating was absolutely disgusting. She went back to throwing her beans but was interrupted a moment later by a voice.

"You're not throwing them high enough." Surprised she missed the bean she had just thrown and looked down to see Draco staring at her with interest. "Watch." He said before throwing his last bean high into the air and catching it neatly in his mouth. He grinned suddenly at her and Maddie had to admit she was impressed, not only by his bean catching abilities but also by how much nicer he looked when he was genuinely smiling. Maddie grinned back and offered him some more beans.

"Show me again." She demanded as Draco helped himself. Obligingly he threw and caught another bean just as neatly. Maddie tried again, this time throwing the bean higher, but she still missed and the bean rolled off onto the carriage floor.

"Tilt your head back more." Draco instructed. Maddie tried but pulled her head forward at the last minute causing the bean to bounce off her nose.

"I'm always afraid I'll choke." She admitted, to her surprise Draco didn't sneer at her as she expected, instead he nodded.

"That's why you have to make sure your tongue is in the way so the bean can't go straight down your throat. Besides if you do start to choke it's ok, I've got my wand and I know how to stop it." He pulled out his wand and pointed it at her throat. Maddie wondered if this was meant to be reassuring, she wasn't quite sure she liked having a much older, more experienced wizard pointing a wand directly at her throat. "Go on try again."

Maddie did, this time the bean bounced off her lip and she cursed loudly. Draco raised an elegant eyebrow again and she grinned and blushed apologetically. She threw up another bean and this time she caught it! Grinning triumphantly she quickly swallowed and tried again. Another perfect catch! Draco nodded and put his wand away.

"See I told you." He said grabbing another three beans "Soon you'll be able to do this." He threw all three beans one after the other into the air and quickly caught them one by one in his mouth. Maddie was impressed.

"Now you're just showing off." she laughed and Draco grinned suddenly again, before they were interrupted by a voice booming through the carriage, telling them to change into their robes and asking the prefects to report to the front carriage.

"That's me, I'm a prefect." said Draco standing up, the rather haughty cold look returning to his face "We'll be there soon so I suggest you pack everything away, you're already wearing your schools robes so luckily you don't need to change. First years get taken across the lake by Hagrid the gamekeeper." There was that familiar curl of the lip again. "Maybe I'll see you at the feast if you're sorted into Slytherin, if not see you around." He gave a funny sort of half smile and strode out the door, his robes whipping around him as he went. Crabbe and Goyle also disappeared, although Maddie noticed they went in the opposite direction, probably to find someone else to boss them around Maddie thought to herself.

Left alone in the compartment she began to pack her sweets back into her trunk. The voice had told them to leave everything on the train and she didn't have much to pack away so she was soon left sitting silently again watching the scenery flash past. Draco wasn't that bad she decided, at least not when he dropped his guard, and he looked rather friendly when he was smiling. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to be in Slytherin, at least she would know someone there. It would have been nice though if she could have met someone her own age, then she wouldn't have to face this sorting thing alone.

Sighing she pulled a hair band from her trunk and proceeded to wrestle her dark brown hair back into a plait before she opened the compartment door and peeked out nervously.

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Well that's the end of the first chapter, thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think, both of the story so far and also of Maddie as a character.

Love and lollipops,

Sivany


	2. I Don't Mind, You Choose

**Disclaimer:** Everything about Harry Potter and his world belongs to J K Rowling; I'm just borrowing it. Any characters I have created are purely fictional and from my own head, any relation to other fictional characters or actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Oh and try to spot the line that has been paraphrased from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, if you can find it let me know in your review. Just so everyone's clear, it doesn't belong to me either, I'm just borrowing it. :)

**AN:** I already had this chapter written so I might as well give you an update now instead of tomorrow, which is what I originally planned. I didn't get many reviews for my last chapter, but thanks to those of you who did take the time to review :) In answer to the question I was asked: Maddie is the elder of the two sisters, Vinny is two years younger. Now enough of me talking, I believe we have a Sorting Ceremony to attend….

**Chapter 2: **I Don't Mind – You Choose

Outside her compartment the corridor was in chaos, students were busy moving up and down the train, obviously trying to get back to their own trunks in order to change. Glancing towards the back of the train Maddie saw a familiar face coming towards her. it was one of the boys from Madam Malkin's. He was making his way down the train, propelling some of the smaller students out of his way as he went. Behind him a girl with bushy brown hair was chastising the students as she passed, urging them to get a move on and change quickly.

"Ron!" Maddie exclaimed as they got nearer, a little surprised at her own daring. Not that she was usually shy, but greeting someone much older who had only met her once and hadn't even spoken to her was a bit confident even for her. Ron looked around in confusion before catching sight of her peering out the compartment door. He gave her a friendly grin.

"Maddie isn't it?" He asked, continuing when she nodded. "You alright there? This is Hermione, we're heading to the prefect compartment." He indicated the brown haired girl who gave a friendly smile and an approving nod.

"Nice to see someone's already changed." She said and Maddie hadn't the heart to tell her she had arrived in her school robes anyway and hadn't needed to change.

"See you at the feast." Ron called as he and Hermione made their way further along the train. Hermione gave her a friendly wave, which Maddie returned, before she turned round to look at the other students. The door of the compartment next to hers opened and a small, rather scared looking face peeped out, when the girl caught Maddie's eye she looked even more terrified and seemed about to draw back inside when Maddie hailed her.

"Are you a first year too?" She shouted over the noise from the rest of the students. The girls face relaxed instantly and she nodded. "Hold on, I'll come over." Maddie left her own compartment and pushed past a couple of older students to join the girl. They ducked back inside and closed the door, instantly silencing the noise outside.

Maddie took a seat next to the girl she had spoken to and looked round, there were two others in the compartment besides them who both looked like first years. One was a thin boy with blonde hair and glasses, the other a girl with long black hair and a mischievous look in her bright blue eyes.

"I didn't realise you were a first year too." The girl next to Maddie was saying rather nervously, tugging on one of her reddish brown plaits "I saw you talking to those older students and I thought you must be a second year." Maddie shook her head.

"No I met Ron in Madam Malkin's before the start of term." She told her "I'm Maddie by the way."

"Oh right, I'm Sally." The girl replied, her face relaxing into a smile, "This is Josh and Alicia, they're first years too." Maddie grinned across as she was introduced, noticing that they were already changed and thinking with a smile that Hermione would be pleased.

"So what house do you think you'll be in?" Alicia was asking, Maddie shrugged so the girl continued, "I think I'll probably be in Slytherin, both my sisters were, although they've already left." Maddie raised her eyebrows in surprise and Alicia guessed what she was thinking. "I know, big age gap right? I think I was a bit of an accident." She laughed; obviously this didn't bother her too much. "Of course they were sorted before this whole thing with you-know-who started over, now people have started to say that all Slytherins are bad again, the old prejudices have returned. It's not true though, I was telling these two earlier." She waved her hand in Josh and Sally's general direction. "My sisters aren't like that at all, they would never be Death Eaters and neither will I."

She said this final statement rather determinedly and Maddie actually began to hope that she too would be in Slytherin, she liked the look Alicia, and she had an air of confidence and fun about her. She seemed a lot more exciting than Sally, who was looking at Alicia in awe, as if she herself would never dare say as much as she did. Not that Sally didn't seem nice of course, just a bit too quiet for Maddie's liking.

"I'll probably be in Ravenclaw." Josh spoke up for the first time since Maddie's arrival, pushing his glasses up his nose as he did so "My older brother Anthony is in that house, he's in sixth year now." Maddie saw Sally's brown eyes grow even bigger at this statement.

"You mean in the same year as Harry Potter?" She squealed in excitement, Josh nodded and Maddie rather thought he'd been hoping someone would make the connection. "What's he like?" Sally gasped.

"Anthony said he seems nice, he's a great seeker apparently. He manages to get himself into a lot of scrapes though. Every holiday Anthony comes home relating some new tale of what Harry Potter has done that term." Josh grinned at Sally's excitement "Harry's in Gryffindor though so he doesn't know him that well. He's friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger mostly." At this Sally nearly fell of her chair in excitement.

"Ron! Maddie you said that red haired boy was called Ron." She squealed rounding on Maddie "Was that the same Ron who's friends with Harry Potter?" Maddie laughed, personally she didn't see what Sally was getting so worked up about. Sure she knew all about Harry Potter and what he had done, but at the end of the day he was just another guy, a very talented and lucky one it seemed, but still just an ordinary human being. Maddie didn't hold with hero worship.

"Yes it's the same one." She told Sally, "I met Harry when he was in Madam Malkin's with Ron, it was him I talked to really." Sally's mouth dropped open, and Maddie thought it was time she shattered her illusions. "Seriously he's just a normal guy, he introduced himself and Ron and told me not to worry about the sorting. He was really nice, he's just like any other normal sixth year."

Sally looked a little put out and out the corner of her eye Maddie saw Alicia rolling her eyes. She was thankful that at least one person agreed with her. Thinking that a change of subject was in order, Maddie continued before anyone could say anything more about Harry Potter.

"What house do you think you'll be in?"

"Oh I don't know, I'm not too worried about it. I don't have any older brothers or sisters and my dad is a muggle so I've no idea. Of course they say families don't always end up in the same house anyway." Sally shrugged "I doubt I'll be in Gryffindor, I'll probably end up in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff."

"I wouldn't mind being in Gryffindor." Alicia stated suddenly "If I'm not in Slytherin I'll probably end up there. Don't you have any idea what house you'll be in?" She asked again turning to Maddie. "Do you even have a preference?" Again Maddie shrugged and shook her head.

"I didn't really have much idea about it all before I got on this train." She said, and remembering how Draco had reacted to that news she continued quickly, "My parents went to Beaubaxtons and I'm the oldest in my family. So far I've met people who are either in or think they'll be in all of the houses so I'm not really that bothered."

The train, which had been slowing down gradually, now came to a standstill with a hiss of steam and smoke. Maddie heard the doors being flung open and the babble of voices as students quickly began to disembark.

"Firs' years this way." A great booming voice floated through the window of the compartment and Sally jumped up at once.

"That's us, come on we don't want to be left behind."

All four of them scrambled out quickly and made their way over to the owner of the voice. Maddie's eyes nearly fell out of her head when she caught sight of the enormous bearded man, his dark eyes twinkling down at them as he ushered towards the boats.

"Who's that!" hissed Sally in amazement as they walked towards the lake.

"That must be Hagrid." Maddie informed her. Much to the surprise of Josh and Alicia.

"How do you know that?" Josh asked incredulously "I thought you didn't know anyone who'd been here before?"

"Oh Draco told me on the train." Maddie said lightly, and thinking this explained everything she began to look with interest at the horseless carriages the rest of the school were climbing into. She saw Hermione, Ron and Harry all clambering into one and further down spotted Draco impatiently pushing a few younger children out of his way so he could get to a carriage.

"Draco? Draco who?" Maddie realised Sally was persisting with the topic and turned back quickly.

"Not Draco Malfoy?" Alicia's blue eyes were wide with shock now and Maddie hoped this wasn't going to be a repeat of the Harry Potter incident, except this time it was Josh who didn't look overawed.

"Yes Draco Malfoy, he's a sixth year. Why?" Maddie replied with a frown.

"You've heard about his father haven't you?" Alicia asked, "What was he like? I heard he bosses the younger students around like he owns the place."

"He's a nasty piece of work my brother told me." Josh interrupted; he seemed to take his brother's word on Hogwarts as gospel "You wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of him." Alicia nodded in agreement and Sally's eyes were beginning to grow wide again, this time with fright. Maddie laughed suddenly.

"Guys he didn't seem that bad. He helped me with my trunk." To her surprise this news didn't seem to placate the others, instead Josh's eyes widened.

"That's bad news, now you owe him something." He said and Maddie was surprised to see Alicia nodding in agreement. Before she could tell them they were being ridiculous though they found themselves clambering into a boat and conversation ceased as the fleet began to move off across the lake and all the first years gazed up in awe at the castle looming above them.

Next to her Sally was beginning to look slightly sick and Maddie wasn't sure if it was seasickness or just nerves, she figured it was the latter since the motion of the boats was so smooth it couldn't possibly make anyone sick. In contrast to Sally Alicia was looking up at the castle with the sparkle of adventure and excitement back in her eyes, Josh looked somewhere between the two and thankfully for Maddie all three of them seemed to have forgotten about Draco Malfoy.

The castle ahead of them looked spectacular and, like so many students before her, Maddie thought it looked like something out of a fairy tale, with it's looming towers and lighted windows twinkling in the gathering dusk. With excitement growing in her stomach Maddie clambered out of the boat at the other side of the lake and followed Hagrid and the other students through the main doors where they stopped in front of a rather severe looking woman.

After greeting them and introducing herself as Professor McGonagall she went on to explain the sorting procedure. Harry had been right Maddie recalled, it didn't sound that bad at all. Before she knew it they were passing through the doors and into the Great Hall.

As she walked down between the tables Maddie craned her neck round and spotted Harry, Ron and Hermione at what she assumed must be the Gryffindor table, she caught Hermione's eye and was rewarded with a friendly smile before she was ushered along by the crowd and the familiar faces disappeared from sight.

Standing at the front with all the other first years waiting for the sorting to begin Maddie realised that most of the school was gazing at the hat expectantly and she joined them. Suddenly the brim of the hat opened and it began to sing a strange song about the various houses and how they needed to unite against the enemy. Maddie assumed it was talking about Voldemort and listened with interest, next to her though Sally was looking more alarmed by the second.

"See even the hat is telling people not to be prejudiced against Slytherin, I told you they weren't all bad." Alicia hissed, leaning over.

"It's a hat!" Sally responded, sounding slightly hysterical "It shouldn't be saying anything!"

There was no time though to respond, the hat had finished it's song and Professor McGonagall was now instructing the new students to come and sit on the stool when their name was called. Maddie could see that the eyes of the other students in the Great Hall were now trained on the group of first years with interest. At least most of them were, Maddie finally spotted Draco Malfoy at the Slytherin table busily conversing with a rather haughty looking black boy sitting next to him, paying no attention whatsoever to the sorting ceremony.

"Atherton, Jenny." Professor McGonagall called; a tall girl with blonde hair approached the stool slowly. The hat was dropped over her head and for a few moments there was silence as everyone watched expectantly. After a while the brim of the hat opened again and it called out:

"Ravenclaw." There was a burst of cheering from one of the tables and the girl went over to sit with her new housemates looking relieved.

"Bennett, Sally." Was the next name to be called and next to her Sally gave a nervous squeak before stumbling over to the stool and having the hat dropped on her head. Maddie was suddenly glad her name was from the middle of the alphabet not the beginning.

"Ravenclaw" The hat shouted again and Maddie grinned as Sally, looking only slightly less anxious made her way over to the table and sat down next to Jenny. Several more students were sorted, 7 Hufflepuffs, 5 Gryffindors, 1 Slytherin and 3 Ravenclaws, including Ross before:

"LeCardieu, Madeline." Before the hat dropped over her eyes, Maddie caught sight of Draco who had stopped talking to his friend and was now gazing at her with slight interest. Next thing she knew she was looking at the inside of a hat and a voice was whispering in her ear.

"Hmmm where should I put you then? Hufflepuff? No I don't think so. Not Ravenclaw either I don't think. You've got talent I can see that and a lot of confidence. Oh yes it's all here, not going to let anyone push you around are you? So Slytherin or Gryffindor?" The hat paused and Maddie wondered if she was actually expected to answer. In truth she didn't mind which house she was in, Alicia had said she would be in Gryffindor or Slytherin but she hadn't been sorted yet so she didn't have that to sway her choice, nor did she know enough about the houses to decide one way or the other. "Well, well, well," The hat continued "You'd do well in either house and I see you have no prejudices about it so it better be…"

"Slytherin!" The last word was shouted to the hall and Maddie heard a burst of cheering come from the Slytherin table. Even Draco was clapping politely, although he still had that indifferent look on his face that Maddie had seen when she first met him. Refusing to be put off Maddie gave him a small smile before sitting down in the only empty part of the bench: opposite and down the table a little from him. She was next to the boy who had been sorted earlier and he regarded her with a slightly pompous look as if he were reserving his judgement on her for now. It wasn't the friendly welcome she would have hoped for but Maddie wasn't one to let things like that get her down. She twisted round to watch the rest of the sorting. Two students later (both Gryffindors) Professor McGonagall called:

"Morgan, Alicia" Maddie craned her neck to get a better view and it wasn't long before the hat shouted.

"Slytherin." Alicia almost ran to the table, her eyes twinkling again as she grinned at Maddie who was cheering along with the rest of the Slytherins. Well almost all of them, Maddie noticed Draco had gone back to chatting with his friend.

"This year is going to be so much fun!" Alicia exclaimed as she slid onto the bench next to Maddie and glanced down the table grinning at the rest of the Slytherins. She got a few friendly grins back, but not as many as the first years at the other tables were getting. "Boring lot" she mumbled to Maddie pulling a face "Is it something that happens as you get older do you think or are they just all miserable?" Maddie giggled and they returned to watching the sorting. Slytherin got 4 more boys and 3 more girls, making it the smallest house that year.

The sorting over and done Professor McGonagall removed the hat and stool and the Headmaster said a few words, mostly about not going into the Forbidden Forest and how they all needed to unite against Voldemort now he had returned to power.

"So which one is Professor Snape?" Alicia asked no one in particular when Professor Dumbledore had finished and they were all tucking into the feast that had magically appeared.

"That one." Answered an older student who was sitting opposite them; she had been one of the few to respond to Alicia's friendly grin earlier. Maddie looked where she was pointing and saw a greasy haired, hooked nose teacher sitting next to Professor McGonagall. Maddie wondered why Alicia wanted to ask about him.

"You know he's the head of our house?" The girl was continuing, as Alicia nodded "He favours us quite a lot, but don't get on the wrong side of him." she warned. "By the way I'm Lauren, a third year. Welcome to Slytherin." With that she returned to her shepherd's pie and conversation with the bulky looking boy sitting next to her.

Maddie looked down the bench at the other first years. There was one girl with red hair who looked quite friendly and smiled when she caught Maddie's eye. Unfortunately she was separated from her and Alicia by two rather snobby looking girls who were making conversation with each other and three of the four other boys, who regarded her with the same expression as the boy on her right had done. Luckily the final boy seemed a bit more open to conversation and began speaking to the red haired girl as Maddie turned back to her meal.

"Julian Feldmarsh." Maddie was startled to find the boy next to her was holding out his hand, although he was still regarding her with the same haughty stare.

"Maddie LeCardieu." She returned shaking the offered hand. "This is Alicia." Julian nodded briefly at Alicia who was looking on with interest, before turning back to Maddie.

"I thought that's what Professor McGonagall said." The boy was now regarding her with a little less disdain. "Are you related to Helena LeCardieu from the French Ministry of Magic?" Maddie nodded and nearly all the haughtiness vanished from the boy's expression. Maddie wasn't really moved by this though, she didn't like the idea of trading respect off her great aunts name, especially when she hadn't even been aware her relative was so well known.

"Really? Wow this is great, I've made friends with someone who knows people in high places." Alicia laughed and Julian looked put out; clearly Alicia felt the same way about Julian as Maddie did.

Looking up Maddie noticed Draco was listening in on the conversation with interest. She couldn't help but roll her eyes at Julian's behaviour, to her surprise instead of a sneer Draco actually gave her that strange sort of half smile he had given her on the train before his attention was commanded by a rather large blonde girl sitting nearby.

All too soon the feast was over and Professor Dumbledore was informing them all that it was time to head to their dormitories to get a good nights sleep before lessons started in the morning. As soon as he finished speaking there was a loud scrapping of benches as all the students rose and began a mass exodus towards the doors. Just as she was wondering where exactly their dormitories were she heard a familiar cold voice addressing them.

"First years, follow me. As a prefect I will show you to the common rooms." Just as before Maddie sensed he was doing this more out of duty than wanting to help them, although she suspected he rather liked the idea of bossing round the first years. As Draco turned and began striding towards the doors the first years quickly scrambled up to follow him. At the door Maddie noticed several Slytherins actually moved out of Draco's way as he led his gaggle of first years into the entrance hall and down some steps. Obviously the Slytherin dormitories were in the dungeons Maddie realised as she trailed down the stone passageways, having to walk rather quickly to keep up with Draco's long strides. Luckily she was quite tall for her age so walking quickly was enough, she couldn't help but giggle though when she noticed Julian was having to trot to keep up with the group.

They stopped abruptly outside what looked to Maddie like an ordinary stone wall and Draco addressed them again.

"The password is 'Serpent'." He informed them, and on cue the wall opened in front of them revealing the common room inside. A few students were already sitting around on the green couches and chairs that surrounded the roaring fire, but Draco led them inside and straight to a set of stone steps. Maddie could see they would be usually covered by a tapestry but for now it was tied back.

"The girls dormitories are up here." Draco was informing them "You are all to unpack your trunks and go straight to bed, someone will be up to check you have done so later." With that he marched off to the other end of the room, the boys trailing after him.

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"I'm Ophelia." The red haired girl introduced herself as they climbed up the steps. Maddie and Alicia smiled and told her their names just as the stairs ended at a wooden door. Maddie pushed it open and they entered to find a rectangular room richly decorated with green and silver. There were 5 four-poster beds, each with green curtains around them, and a trunk standing at the end. Maddie's was between Alicia's and Ophelia's for which she was grateful. The other girls whose names she had forgotten since the sorting had been allocated the two beds on the opposite wall. Another thing Maddie was rather relieved about was the two windows at the end of the room, she hadn't really liked the idea of sleeping in a dungeon so it was a relief to know that their rooms were actually above the common room and therefore on the ground floor of the castle. She went to look out and saw they had a partial view of the lake along with a queer looking hut with smoke pouring from its chimney. Wondering what it was, Maddie turned away and went back to unpacking her trunk.

Maddie couldn't help grinning to herself as she hung her spare robes in the wardrobe, finally she was at Hogwarts and tomorrow she would begin learning how to do magic herself. Of course she had grown up around all things magical so she already knew a lot about it but children weren't really allowed to do magic of their own until they had been properly trained. She had been waiting for this day most of her life and her good mood was only increased as she thought how quickly she had made friends and got to know people. The only dampener on her spirits was the two haughty looking girls also sharing the dormitory, she contemplated introducing herself to try and break the ice but was spared the trouble.

"I'm Olivia and this is Emily." The taller of the two girls was addressing her and the others, looking a little less snobby than before, although still managing to convey the idea that she thought she was doing them a favour. Maddie, Alicia and Ophelia all introduced themselves in turn and Olivia began talking about her family and asking them detailed questions about their own. Emily said very little, only speaking when Olivia looked to her for agreement with something she was saying, Maddie got the impression that they had known each other before Hogwarts and that their friendship had been like this for many years. After she had spent a few minutes grilling each of them on her background Olivia seemed to decide that they passed the test for now and became a little more friendly, sharing with them information on the Professors that her fourth year Slytherin cousin had told her.

"Apparently History of Magic is taught by a ghost called Professor Binns." She was saying as they all got changed for bed. "One day he died and just carried on teaching anyway. Peter reckons he doesn't even know he's dead yet." They all laughed, although Maddie wasn't quite sure she liked Olivia and the way she had checked out their backgrounds before consenting to speak with them. She consoled herself though with the fact that she could sit with Alicia and Ophelia during class and would only have to speak with Olivia in the dormitory.

Olivia's description of a Professor Sprout was cut off by the arrival of a fifth year female prefect who told them in was time they were in bed and waited until they were before extinguishing the lamps and leaving. Maddie was actually quite glad to be in bed, it had been a tiring day and it was nice to crawl between the warm sheets and snuggle down under the blankets. She heard the others saying goodnight and replied sleepily before closing her eyes and drifting off into dreams of steam engines driven by ghostly professors who wore talking hats.

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So there you have it, Maddie has been sorted into Slytherin. From what you have read about her so far you may or may not think this is an odd choice, it depends how many of the little Slytherin traits in her nature you have picked up on. If you haven't, don't worry, they weren't very obvious and you will see more of them soon, like Alicia said however this doesn't make Maddie a bad person, I'm sure as you've worked out she is actually very nice. The reasons for her house placement and the effects it has on the life of some of the characters will play a major role in this story. Whilst you're waiting for the next chapter please review!

Love and lollipops,

Sivany


	3. Discovering Prejudice

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter isn't mine, but I invented Maddie and all the other first years. No stealing them without permission.

**AN: **I finally got round to editing and posting this! Anyone waiting for my other story I'm afraid that won't get updated till Wednesday due to my very busy schedule. Thanks to those who reviewed my last chapter, hope you enjoy this one where Maddie realises just what she's let herself in for.

**Chapter 3: **Discovering Prejudice

Maddie awoke early the next morning to find Ophelia and Alicia already pulling on their robes whilst Olivia and Emily slept on. Seeing she was awake Alicia quickly put her finger to her lips and grinned wickedly, nodding Maddie hopped out of bed and quietly began getting dressed herself. Grabbing their wands the three made their way downstairs to the common room where Draco and another girl Maddie didn't know were busy pinning some sheets to the notice board. All the first year boys were already there, along with a few students from various other years who were scattered around the common room waiting to read the notices. As soon as Draco and the girl were done Maddie approached the board.

There were various notices about school rules and banned items, one about Quidditch tryouts and finally what Maddie considered the most important of all, the timetables. She quickly located the first year one and began reading off their lessons to the others who were now crowding round.

"Transfiguration first, then charms, then a double period for flying." She read "Tomorrow we've got our first Defence Against the Dark Arts and History of Magic lessons, but we don't have Herbology or Potions until Wednesday." At this news Alicia sighed.

"Shame, I was looking forward to seeing a ghostly Professor, although supposedly his lessons are deadly boring. Still," she continued brightening up "flying should be good fun."

Maddie agreed and they trooped back upstairs to collect their books for the morning's lessons. Up in the dormitory Olivia and Emily were now awake and pulling on their robes so Maddie told them what they would need before hurrying off to breakfast.

On the way to the Great Hall Ophelia introduced them to Mathew, the boy she had been sitting next to at the feast. Maddie thought he looked much nicer than Julian or the other boys, he didn't have the same haughty air about him nor did he seem to think he was too good for them and during breakfast he sat with them rather than the others.

After breakfast they hurried off to Transfiguration which they were taking with the Ravenclaws. Maddie waved at Sally and Josh and was a little confused when they both looked at her in surprise, however after a moment they both waved back with huge grins and Maddie wondered if she had imagined the looks. When they filed into the classroom Mathew, Ophelia, Alicia, herself, Sally and Josh took the front row and she quickly exchanged news of the first night with Sally.

"Everyone in Ravenclaw is lovely." Sally enthused, the almost permanent look of awe back in her brown eyes. "Although the older students seem a bit intimidating, they all know so much." She then launched into a description of the common room and the other students in their house with Josh helpfully inputting bits she had missed and Alicia leaning over Maddie's shoulder to hear better.

Before they had even nearly finished the conversation Professor McGonagall swept into the room and Alicia nearly fell off her chair in her haste to turn and face the front. Professor McGonagall's eyes fell on Maddie and Sally and for a moment Maddie was sure she detected a flicker of surprise before it was replaced by her usual stern expression. Next to her Maddie could see Sally's eyes had grown wide with fear and she was sure she could see her hands shaking slightly as she opened her textbook in accordance with Professor McGonagall's instructions.

Transfiguration pasted quickly in a blur of note taking and diagram drawing about turning matchsticks into needles that Maddie wasn't really sure she understood. She was rather glad when it was all over and the bell clanged in the depths of the castle signalling the end of the lesson. There was a ten minute break before Charms so Maddie and Alicia stood out in the corridor to talk to Sally and Josh. As the other Slytherins departed Maddie could see they were giving her and Alicia rather strange looks, almost as if they wondered why she was stood around talking. Even Ophelia and Mathew looked a little surprised when she introduced them to Sally and Josh but they joined politely in the conversation anyway. Maddie was beginning to think there was either something seriously wrong with everyone else or something about Sally and Josh she had missed. She resolved to talk to Alicia about it at lunchtime.

Charms was to be taken with the Hufflepuffs and as they stood in the corridor waiting to enter the room Maddie looked over at them with interest. Most of them just ignored her, but one or two threw her half frightened, half disgusted looks and Maddie wondered what their problem was. Shrugging it off she entered the classroom and claimed a table for her, Alicia, Ophelia and Mathew near the back of the room. Professor Flitwick, a tiny man who actually had to stand on a pile of books whilst he addressed the class, informed them that they would be levitating feathers this lesson.

After much practising of the charm and the wand movement they finally got to try it for themselves and Maddie was pleased when hers floated up after only a few tries. Professor Flitwick was delighted as well and awarded Slytherin 20 house points. By the end of the lesson no one else had managed it and Maddie left the classroom feeling rather proud of herself.

She and Alicia ate a hurried lunch and then dashed back to the dormitory where they quickly dumped their bags and raced down to the common room. They managed to get good seats on one of the couches by the fire and Maddie broached the subject that had been bugging her most of the morning.

"Haven't you noticed how people looked at us strangely when we spoke to Sally and Josh?" she asked Alicia, deciding a forthright approach was the best and hoping Alicia didn't think she was imagining things. To her surprise though Alicia nodded and looked thoughtful.

"Remember I was talking about the prejudices against Slytherin, well it works both ways, a lot of Slytherins are also prejudiced against anyone who is in any house other than their own." She explained after a short pause. "I think everyone expects all Slytherins to be like that, including most of the Slytherins. I guess when we talked to Sally and Josh everyone was surprised because it's so unusual to see a Slytherin being friendly with anyone outside their own house. In fact I don't think some of the Slytherins were that happy with us, did you see the looks we got after Transfiguration?"

"That's ridiculous!" Maddie exclaimed, "They can't expect us not to talk to anyone outside of Slytherin!" Alicia shrugged.

"Like I said that's what they all think, it doesn't mean you have to go along with it. Obviously they think no one outside Slytherin is worth speaking to."

"Well that's stupid." said Maddie, folding her arms defiantly "I'm not stopping speaking to anyone just because they're not in Slytherin. If you ask me it's those other stupid Slytherin first years who aren't worth speaking too." As she said this she glanced up and noticed for the first time that they had an audience. Draco Malfoy was sitting in one of the chairs across from them. He raised his eyebrows at her as she finished her little speech before going back to the book he was reading. Maddie was rather embarrassed at being overheard saying something bad about her own house members, especially by someone like Draco Malfoy, but she didn't have a lot of time to think about it as the bell started clanging, signalling the end of lunchtime.

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Flying lessons turned out to be just as much fun as Alicia had predicted, they were with the Ravenclaws again so Maddie got to see Sally's first reaction to flying. Mostly it had involved her turning rather green, shaking a lot and finally almost falling off in fright when Madam Hooch blew her whistle. Alicia on the other hand had taken to it straight away, impressing Madam Hooch with her balance and control. Maddie had been nicely placed between the two extremes, she was no expert but in time she felt she might make quite a decent flier.

At the end of the day she tumbled into bed tired yet happy, feeling that if everyday went as well as this one her time at Hogwarts would be a breeze. Of course that was just wishful thinking she knew, there were bound to be some hiccups and there was still the matter of the Slytherin prejudice to deal with. That though could wait till tomorrow, for now she drifted off to sleep to dream of feathers that floated around before turning into giant needles that she could ride like a broom over the Great Lake whilst below Madam Hooch frantically blew her whistle and shouted at her to come down.

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The next day when she awoke to the pale morning light shining in the window Maddie found only Alicia left in the dormitory, Olivia and Emily had already gone to breakfast and Ophelia had gone to find Mathew. Dressing quickly they hurried to breakfast, taking their seats next to Ophelia and Mathew in the Great Hall.

"History of Magic first, then Charms again, then Defence Against the Dark Arts." Mathew was telling them as Maddie helped herself to some toast and jam. Maddie nodded and only listened with half an ear as Mathew told them how he had been practising the levitation charm and thought he might have finally got it.

History of Magic with the Hufflepuffs turned out to be rather boring, after the initial novelty of having a transparent Professor had worn off there was nothing to do but listen to him drone on about Goblin riots and attempt to take notes. Charms was a little better, they were continuing with levitation Charms and after her success yesterday Maddie was allowed to try her hand at levitating a small book whilst the others practised on feathers. After lunch they had Professor Snape for Defence Against the Dark Arts with the Gryffindors, luckily for Maddie Professor Snape seemed to favour his own house because she couldn't get her shielding charm to work at all. Unfortunately for the Gryffindors he appeared to have some sort of vendetta against them and took away 20 points when one of them accidentally set a piece of parchment on fire. The favouritism however didn't get them out of the homework: a foot of parchment on why shielding charms were useful. Everyone groaned knowing that they already had an essay about levitation charms to write and a chapter of A History of Magic to read and take notes on.

All in all though Maddie felt it had been another successful day and as she snuggled down in her warm bed she could only hope tomorrow's new lessons of Herbology and Potions would be just as interesting.

----------------------------

Potions turned out to be more of an event than expected, thanks to what Maddie thought of as the eccentricities of Professor Slughorn. For one thing there was his huge velvet covered belly that almost seemed to arrive in the dungeon classroom before him. Then there were the incidents during the register. Like Defence Against the Dark Arts, potions was taken with the Gryffindors and when Professor Slughorn had called out the name of one of them a rather strange conversation had taken place.

"Gerald Thornber."

"Yes sir."

"You wouldn't by any change be related to Henry Thornber who plays for the Wimbourne Wasps would you?"

"Yes sir he's my Uncle."

"Well, well fancy that. So nice to have you in the class."

Maddie was just wondering what his Uncle had to do with Professor Slughorn's class when he began on the list of Slytherins and called her name.

"Madeline LeCardieu."

"Yes sir." Slughorn peered at her and Maddie felt already that she knew what was coming next.

"Are you related to Helena LeCardieu from the French Ministry of Magic?" He asked, as she had expected.

"Yes sir, she's my great aunt."

"Well it's a pleasure to have the great niece of such an illustrious lady in my class. An unexpected honour as well, I'd have thought you would be at Beaubaxtons."

"Well we've lived over here for most of my life sir." Replied Maddie feeling some sort of explanation was required of her.

"Of course, of course." Professor Slughorn agreed "I've met her several times and she often mentioned she had family in England, you must be it." He beamed at her as if making this connection was something he was rather proud of. "Now do you prefer Maddie or Madeline?" he continued.

"Everyone calls me Maddie." She replied, trying to stop herself from giggling at Alicia who was now rolling her eyes.

"Excellent, excellent. I'll remember that." Professor Slughorn nodded, before continuing the rest of the register.

Thankfully for Maddie the rest of the lesson passed without any further mention of her great aunt and her and Alicia's cure for boils turned the right shade of blue by the end of class, causing Professor Slughorn to award them 20 house points each. Maddie was rather grateful to escape the dungeons and race across the lawns to the greenhouses so she could finally giggle at Professor Slughorn's odd behaviour.

Herbology with the Ravenclaws passed peacefully enough, Maddie and Alicia worked with Sally and Josh on their Devils Snare. Although this arrangement earned them several strange looks, no one made any comment, which was rather lucky as Maddie was getting thoroughly tired of all the silly prejudices.

---------

Whilst waiting outside the Transfiguration classroom later that afternoon Maddie spotted Harry, Ron and Hermione walking past. Without thinking she grinned and waved at them, forgetting that they were much older than her and probably wouldn't want to be bothered with a first year student. As she expected they all looked surprised, but not as surprised as she was when Harry and Ron gave her barely a nod before sweeping past. Hermione on the other hand quickly rearranged her features into a friendly smile, before hurrying to catch up with her friends. Maddie was sure she heard Hermione telling them off for something as soon as she thought they were out of earshot and wondered what was going on.

She turned back round to find Sally bubbling over with excitement and Alicia looking concerned.

"That was Harry Potter!" Sally was enthusing as if she'd just witnessed an extremely rare event "Chloe from second year was telling me all about him, those are his friends Ron and Hermione. You've met Ron before haven't you Maddie?" As Maddie was nodding Alicia pulled her to one side and began whispering urgently.

"Did you see their reaction?" She hissed "You said they were friendly before but they hardly looked at you just then."

"I know, it's probably just because they don't want some first year talking to them all the time." Maddie laughed, surprised at how seriously Alicia was taking this.

"No" Alicia shook her head "It's because we're in Slytherin. Everyone's prejudiced against us, even Harry Potter probably thinks all our parents are Death Eaters." Maddie looked at Alicia in amazement, hardly believing what she was hearing. Just because of what house she was in she had not only already been marked out as a snob who thought no other house was good enough for her but it also seemed that everyone was also going to assume her parents were Death Eaters. No wonder everyone acted so surprised when she spoke to anyone outside her own house, even Professor McGonagall had looked taken aback when she had found her speaking to Sally that first Transfiguration lesson.

As they all filed into the Transfiguration classroom Maddie wondered what she was going to do. There was no way she was about to conform to what everyone else expected of her. She liked Sally and Josh, they were a lot better than most of the people in her house, far better than those haughty boys whose names she still wasn't sure of and far better than Olivia who had judged people worthy or unworthy depending on their backgrounds. She would just carry on as normal she decided, everyone else was just going to have to get used to it. If the other Slytherins didn't like it, that was tough as well, they might be in the same house as her but Maddie felt that some of them could do with a really good kick up the….

"Madeline open your book at page 5, unless of course you think you already know everything about Transfiguration." Professor McGonagall's sharp voice cut off her thoughts and she quickly mumbled her apology as she bent studiously over the book, attempting to make sense of the strange diagrams drawn there.

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Well that's it for this chapter, Maddie is beginning to realise just what Alicia meant on the train when she said people were prejudiced against Slytherin. I wasn't too happy with a few of the sentences in this chapter, I felt they didn't flow too well but after several hopeless attempts to make them sound better I gave up and decided not to keep you waiting any longer. The next chapter is pretty much already written; it's called 'Discovering Power' -when some of the first years start getting a little bit above themselves Draco Malfoy is only too happy to put them firmly back in their places! Till next time, please review.

Love and lollipops,

Sivany


	4. Discovering Power

**Disclaimer: **I wish Harry Potter were mine but he isn't, I invented Maddie though.

**AN: **I'm back, sorry it took so long to update! My creative powers took a rather long and unexpected holiday, but they're back now with rather nice tan, having completely forgotten to send a postcard. Still you can't have everything. Also please note I'm writing this for fun, I try to keep my characters as realistic as possible, but sometimes in the name of having a little creative fun they may veer off the road slightly :)

**Chapter 4: **Discovering Power

After the first couple of weeks Maddie began to settle down into her new routine and learn how to find her way about the castle. What with the moving staircases, doors that had to be coaxed open and solid walls which sometimes liked to pretend to be doors, everything was rather confused in her mind at first and her and Alicia often got lost making them late for lessons. Luckily most Professors were lenient on first years who arrived breathless and red faced having taken a wrong turn on the way to the classroom, even Professor Snape tolerated it, although only from the Slytherins.

She also started to get used to all the unusual lessons. Apart from those that took place in classrooms there was flying twice a week and Herbology in the green houses out on the lawns. First years also had to spend Wednesday evenings in the Astronomy Tower studying the stars through their telescopes and it was after one of these lessons that Maddie lay wide awake, shivering in her bed.

Earlier thatnight the first years had arrived back from the lesson and headed up to the dormitory to find the window wide open and the room icy cold. Emily had nervously admitted to opening it earlier that evening and forgetting to close it again, earning her several scathing comments off Alicia. Eventually though everyone had retired to bed drawing their hangings tightly to try and create a warm cocoon under their blankets. Soon the sound of four sets of rhythmic breathing indicated that everyone else was asleep.

Now it was long past midnight and Maddie was still lying awake shivering under her covers, unable to get warm no matter how far she buried herself into her bed. Finally she sat up an idea forming in her mind. There would be no one in the common room now, everyone would have gone to bed, perhaps she could creep down and warm herself by the fire for a while.

Pleased with her plan Maddie scrambled out of bed and quietly made her way to the door, taking one of the blankets from her bed with her. In the common room she curled herself up in one of the chairs nearest the fire, busily arranging her blanket so it covered as much of her as possible. She was so preoccupied with getting herself cosy that she didn't notice a pair of silver grey eyes starring at her from the other side of the fire and when she finally looked up and met those eyes she felt her stomach drop. Draco Malfoy was sitting starring at her coldly; the only sign of any emotion his one raised eyebrow, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. She knew she was in trouble now, Draco was a prefect and she was a first year who was supposed to be in bed, just yesterday she had been told by Mathew how last year Draco had actually hexed a couple of first years who had sneaked down to the common room after curfew. Not wanting to betray her alarm Maddie held Draco's gaze and for a long moment they were both silent.

"Maddie." Draco was still staring at her, both eyebrows now elegantly arched.

"Draco." She echoed his emotionless tone, hoping that he wasn't about to hex her. There was another long moment of silence and Maddie turned to gaze at the fire, which had died down leaving the glowing logs sitting silently in the hearth.

"You couldn't sleep?" Draco's voice was still cold, but Maddie thought she detected just a hint of something else there. Perhaps not sympathy, but maybe interest. In reply she shook her head and pulled her blanket around her as she shivered again. It was warmer down here by the fire, but not as warm as Maddie had hoped.

"Are you cold?" This time Maddie glanced over at him before she nodded. He had obviously been sitting reading when she had arrived; his open book still lay on his lap but he shifted it now as he reached for his wand. Maddie wondered for a moment if this was the part where he hexed her, although if it was she thought it odd that he hadn't shouted at her first. Determined not to flinch she waited and watched, to her surprise Draco pointed his wand not at her, but at the fire. Her mumbled something she couldn't hear and suddenly the flames leapt up in the grate, crackling as they caught hold of the un-burnt wood and started to blaze brightly.

"Thanks." Maddie smiled gently at him and settled back in her chair as the warmth washed over her.

"How you finding life at Hogwarts?" Again Draco was speaking to her and she looked at him in surprise. This was not what she had expected after all she had heard about Draco. Then again she had sat with him on the train and her experience then told her that sometimes he wasn't as bad as people made out, it was strange how people's opinionshad made her apprehensive of someone who had almost been kind to her.

"It's ok I suppose." Maddie replied, she wanted to say something about the prejudices of the Slytherins, but she knew he was probably one of those that encouraged them and so wisely kept her mouth shut.

"You know I should give you detention for being down here after curfew, it's almost 1 o'clock." Draco was now looking at her reflectively as if trying to decide whether he would carry out his threat or not.

"Really?" Maddie replied rather sleepily not really thinking about what she was saying "I thought you would just hex me or something." Immediately she wished she hadn't said it in case Draco got angry, but to her surprise he gave a short laugh.

"I never hexed those first years last year." The funny half smile that Maddie had glimpsed before returned now to his pale features. "That was just a rumour. All I did was point my wand at them and shout, they were the ones who fell over themselves trying to get away." Maddie giggled slightly in relief, she could definitely understand how a rumour like that would get started. Draco was very cold and aloof; she suspected he was scary when he got angry.

"I suppose people thinking you hexed them doesn't do your reputation any harm." She mused and Draco raised his eyebrow again as a smirk crept across his face.

"Exactly." he nodded "You're pretty sharp about things like that aren't you. I wondered why the hat had placed you in Slytherin, it seemed an odd choice, but I'm beginning to think it was right." Maddie said nothing, she had wondered herself a few times why she had been placed in Slytherin. She didn't regret it, or wish to be part of another house, but the obvious differences between her and the other Slytherins sometimes made her wonder if perhaps the hat had got it wrong.

"So what do you think of the other first years?" Draco asked suddenly. Maddie thought for a bit before answering, realising that he was referring only to the Slytherins.

"I like Alicia, Ophelia and Mathew." She shrugged "Olivia and Julian didn't speak to me until they'd given me a grilling on my background. Emily and Tom are too easily led by others and those other boys aren't even worth speaking too." She scrunched up her nose at the thought of the final two boys in first year whose names she had finally learnt were Wilfred and Carl. Draco gave another short laugh.

"You're very dismissive of your house mates." He commented, "Some of them do seem a little too big for their own boots though considering they are only first years." His eyes narrowed dangerously, and Maddie suddenly got the impression he was going to make it his duty to bring them down a peg or two with a nasty bump. Half of her felt slightly worried and a little sorry for them, but the other half of her felt that most of them, particularly Wilfred and Carl who sneered down their noses at her every time they saw her, deserved it.

"You need to get to bed." The dangerous glint had now gone from Draco's eyes and he was looking at her, not so coldly as he had earlier but still without much trace of emotion on his face. Maddie nodded and gathered up her blanket before she headed for the stairs.

"Night Draco." She called, stopping as she reached the steps and turning back round to face him. "Oh and thanks for not hexing me." She laughed and was rewarded with a sudden smile from Draco that vanished as quickly as it came. Making her way up the stairs she thought about Draco's behaviour, obviously though he enjoyed power and being able to terrify the younger Slytherins was a large part of that power, but all the same he wasn't quite as bad as some people would have her believe. She shook her head as she climbed into bed, the others might be terrified of him, but she resolved to herself that Draco was never going to be able to push her around.

--------

Just two days later her resolve was put well and truly to the test in the common room. Maddie and Alicia were sitting at the table nearest the fire to work on their potions essay, surrounded by a group of second years. They had been lucky to get these seats, this was the most sort after table in the common room being so near the warm fire, and usually it was fully occupied by the older students. Today though they had got lucky and bagged the last two seats.

One thing about this table was that Draco seemed to think he had more right to sit there than anyone else, and indeed if it was fully occupied he simply stood and glowered until all the students gathered up their things and departed to another table. Maddie however wasn't worrying about that now, Draco wasn't even in the common room and even if he was she wasn't planning on moving.

"So powered wormwood is added after the beetle eyes?" Alicia was saying "Otherwise the potion will…." She trailed off and Maddie consulted the textbook.

"Turn green and lumpy." There was silence for a few moments as they scribbled this down, before Maddie read on "Once the potion has reached this state there is no way to rescue it, the entire contents of the cauldron should be disposed of in accordance with the appropriate magical regulations and the cauldron washed thoroughly before… Ouch!"

She was interrupted by a sharp nudge from Alicia and followed her friends gaze to where Draco and his friends were making their way towards the table, clearly with the intention of sitting down. Already the second years were scrambling around to hurry and get out of his way. Maddie however just rolled her eyes and looked back at the book.

"…before attempting to mix the potion again." She continued.

"Maddie!" Alicia hissed, looking at her wide-eyed. Maddie turned to look at her friend, the expression on her face clearly saying that she wasn't planning on moving anywhere. Realising this Alicia merely sighed and bent her head back to her parchment, if Maddie was staying she would too, no one could say she wasn't a loyal friend.

Draco had now reached the table, followed by a large blonde girl, a tall black boy and two boys Maddie recognised as Crabbe and Goyle. Technically there were enough seats for them to sit at the table with the first years, however they were not used to having to share.

"Maddie." Draco's cold voice caused Maddie to look up and meet his steely grey eyes with her sparkling green ones.

"Draco." She replied, keeping her voice level and her expression neutral before returning to her work. Next to her she could hear Alicia muttering something about this not being a good idea and she was just beginning to wonder what Draco would do next when she realised he had sat down opposite her. Determined not to betray any surprise she raised her eyes discretely and saw the tall boy about to make some sort of complaint. Draco however glared at him and his mouth snapped shut as he took a seat. Crabbe, Goyle and the girl also took their seats and soon fell into a conversation about their work. Maddie felt Alicia nudge her again, this time though she had a grin on her face.

"Come on we've got to get this potions essay finished." Maddie whispered, grinning back.

--------

This event of course did not go unnoticed by the other Slytherins and later that evening after Draco had departed for his prefect duties a small crowd of first and second years formed around Maddie.

"Are you his cousin or something?" One of the second years asked in amazement.

"No, why?" Maddie replied, confused by the question.

"You must be related to him somehow, he never lets anyone get away with sitting at his table. Last year one of the third years attempted it and they ended up being flung tern feet across the common room by some spell he used." The other second years were nodding in agreement; clearly they remembered the incident well.

"I'm not related to him." Maddie insisted, wondering why everyone was getting so worked up about it. "Obviously he just didn't mind me staying because there were enough seats for his friends anyway. What would be the point of causing a fuss?" The others still looked doubtful and Maddie threw her hands up in frustration.

"Maybe he was just in a good mood!" She suggested, "I really don't think it's that big a deal. I'm going to bed."

Unfortunately although she could escape the majority of the interested crowd in her dormitory the first year girls could still follow her up there.

"Obviously he isn't as bad as everyone says." Olivia announced when they reached the dormitory. "I think he's all talk and no action. He scares people with threats and now they're so used to being scared of him that no one bothers to stand up for themselves and realise that actually he isn't going to do anything about it. That's the last time I give up my seat for him."

Maddie wasn't so sure Olivia had got the right idea. She remembered the look in Draco's eyes that night they had spoken in the common room. That look hadn't been from someone who was all talk and no actions. Sure rumours, threats and his steely cold stare helped his reputation as someone not to cross, but when it came down to it she was pretty certain he was capable of acting on his threats. Why he hadn't tonight she wasn't sure. Perhaps she had just caught him in a good mood, perhaps he genuinely hadn't been bothered because there was enough seats to go round. Or maybe, just maybe it was because he had some sort of respect for her.

She thought about this as she got into bed. She was a mere first year who wouldn't have been able to fight back and he was a sixth year who had a reputation to keep up, by not hexing her or even shouting at her he must surely be aware he had dented his reputation and with it his power over the others quite severely. Was it possible that Draco Malfoy, a sixth year who had little time for fifth years, never mind first years, actually considered her to be someone he should be nice to?

No, she thought, it was impossible. She wasn't even sure that he had much respect for those he would call his friends, certainly he had none for Crabbe and Goyle, but then again who would? The idea that he hadn't hexed her because he actually respected her was ridiculous, but then why hadn't he? She was still pondering this as she fell asleep.

--------

A week later the incident had become common knowledge and was no longer talked about so much, although she did occasionally hear it mentioned by Olivia, Wilfred and Carl. All three of them seemed determined now to stand up for themselves and not bow to Draco's wants. Usually she would have thought 'good for them', but in their case the decision sprang from haughtiness and believing they were better than everyone else, not from principle and courage. She knew they were playing with fire and in her nastier moments she actually hoped they got their hands well and truly burnt.

That Thursday evening Maddie was playing wizards chess in the common room with Alicia, whilst the rest of the first years were struggling to finish their History of Magic essays. Somehow they had managed to take over the whole of the table nearest the fire, but Maddie had a feeling this wouldn't last long.

Her suspicion was confirmed when Draco and his tall friend entered and began heading for the table, both carrying armfuls of heavy books. Almost immediately Ophelia and Mathew got up, they at least were sensible enough to listen to Maddie's advice on the matter. After a few moments Julian, Tom and Emily had the sense to leave too. Now only Olivia, Wilfred and Carl remained.

Draco and his friend dropped their books in the empty spaces and stood looking at the three first years, arms folded and eyebrows raised as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing. Draco suddenly looked over and his gaze met Maddie's.

"Olivia, Wilfred, Carl." She mouthed, trying to hide a smirk as she thought about what was about to happen and hoping Draco was good at lip reading. It seemed he was for he gave a barely perceptible nod before turning and leaning over the table to glare at the first years.

"Olivia. Wilfred. Carl." He said, staring at each one in turn. It wasn't a greeting, it was a warning. Even from her vantage point Maddie could see the dangerous curl of Draco's lips and the wicked glint in his eyes. The three first years gulped visibly, but Wilfred, who Maddie though had far too much confidence for his own good, managed to look Draco back in the eye.

"Draco." he replied and Maddie detected a hint of a challenge in his voice, obviously he still thought Draco would do nothing.

"Move!" Draco's voice was forceful, yet somehow still cold. One hand moved to his wand, but Wilfred and the others still didn't move and by now every pair of eyes in the common room was fixed on the little group. Maddie was now beginning to think that not only were they stuck up and thought far too much of themselves, they were also stupid as well.

"Or?" Wilfred asked. This time the challenge in his voice was obvious.

"Oh this is just going beyond stupid." Maddie muttered under her breath as Draco brought his wand round to point directly at the three first years.

Immediately Olivia and Carl squealed and almost knocked over their chairs in an effort to scramble away from the table. Without taking his eyes off Wilfred, Draco calmly pointed his wand at the work they had left behind. He muttered a spell and books, parchment and ink flew off the table and shot across the common room.

Wilfred gulped as the wand came back round to point at him, he still didn't move, although Maddie suspected that this was now because he was more frozen to the spot in fear than anything else. There was absolute silence in the common room; all eyes were now on Draco and Wilfred.

"Repellius." Draco hissed. There was a bang and a flash of bright light and suddenly Wilfred was sailing through the air before he landed in a crumpled heap near the fireplace. His books received the same treatment and then Draco and his friend sat down quietly at the table as if nothing had happened, ignoring the hissing conversations that now broke out all over the common room. Wilfred scrambled to his feet and ran from the common room, closely followed by Olivia, Carl, Emily and Julian. Tom, Ophelia and Mathew quietly joined Alicia and Maddie at their table.

They all looked at each other, but no one said anything. There wasn't much to say. Maddie could only sit and think that whatever she had said or done to make Draco more lenient towards her she was extremely glad about it.

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That's it for now! By the way Mathew isn't a misspelling of Matthew, I know someone who actually spells it like that, however in the last chapter I did spell Beauxbatons wrong, for which I apologise. Next time Maddie will be involved in a duel, butwho it'swith and what happens afterwards will have to wait until the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed this one, thanks for reading and please review!

Love and lollipops,

Sivany


	5. It's Wrong, You Know

**Disclaimer: **I didn't invent Harry Potter, or anything about his world, but I'm sure you all know that already. I did however invent the first years that appear in this story.

**AN: **Ok I know. Once again it's taken me forever to update, but the good news is I have written 2 and a half more chapters so updates should happen more frequently in the future. I'm enjoying writing this again! In this chapter I mention more about Maddie's lessons and due to a lack of information about what they study in the first book some of the spells and plants are going to be things that Harry doesn't study until later on in his school life. I've tried to keep them as near first year standard as possible though, except for Protego which apparently a lot of grown wizards can't do. I didn't realise this until about 5 minutes ago and as I've already mentioned them being taught it by Snape in an earlier chapter it's now staying in the story. Personally I would have thought a basic shielding charm would be one of the most important spells to learn and would therefore be taught at an early age! Also in this chapter I mention them sitting in a window alcove, castles of the type that Hogwarts appears to be (i.e. one for living in rather than defence) often had very deeply set windows with broad window ledges, so sitting four eleven year olds on one wouldn't be much of a problem, although might have been a bit of a squash. Anyway enough talk from me, on with the chapter!

**Chapter 5:** It's Wrong, You Know

Over the next couple of weeks there was no doubt that Draco had made his position as leader of Slytherin very clear. All the Slytherins below fifth year kept well clear of him, even Maddie didn't speak to him much, although this was more because he didn't speak to her than because she had any great fear of him. Draco didn't worry her any more now than he had when he had smiled at her on the train, and he seemed to sense this because he treated her with more respect than the other younger Slytherins.

That said she didn't really have much time to pay attention to what Draco might be doing, the teachers were starting to pile on the homework and several evenings a week she could be found in the library with Alicia, Josh and Sally struggling to write essays on Goblin Riots, or the uses of Bubotuber pus, or whatever potion they were studying that week. Maddie didn't mind the Potions essays too much, Professor Slughorn had already commented several times that she obviously took after her aunt in potion making abilities, and although Maddie had no idea if this was accurate, it was true that Potions seemed to come naturally to her. It was a shame, she often thought, that this talent did not extend to other lessons, especially Transfiguration, which like her friends she found extremely difficult. Transfiguration though was nothing compared to Herbology, Alicia had looked at her like she was insane the day she had declared she would rather do a Transfiguration essay than spend an hour in the greenhouses doing Herbology, but that was how she felt. She hated plants. Or at least she hated handling them and studying them. She could admit that they were extremely useful and often pretty to look at, but ask her to actually look after one and she just fell to pieces. She got through most Herbology lessons by pretending to know what she was doing, whilst Alicia and Sally did most of the actual work. She wasn't much better at the theory either and only managed to scrap an Acceptable on most of her Herbology essays through Sally's patient reading and correcting of the most inaccurate parts of her work.

Alicia, Sally and Josh usually left her to finish her Herbology essays alone, often at her own insistence, since she knew if they were there she would only use it as an excuse to become distracted.

The library was rather crowded on the evening before one of her Herbology essays was due in, and her friends had just left to go back to their common rooms when she was distracted by the entrance of Draco Malfoy and his tall black friend. Even across the library she could hear his bored drawl insisting that his friend hurry up and chastising him for forgetting to complete his Ancient Runes essay.

Maddie was just wondering what Ancient Runes involved when she realised that Draco had flopped down into the seat next to her and was leaning back in his chair giving a huge, rather fake yawn to show his displeasure at being dragged to the library. Determined not to be distracted any further she bent her head studiously over her work, trying to remember what she had been about to write about Devil's Snare.

"That's wrong you know." came a voice over her right shoulder, and Maddie turned round to find Draco staring at her essay, his usual expression of bored disdain on his face.

"What is?" she asked, staring down at the line she had just written.

"Most of it actually." He said, wrinkling his nose as if the essay actually offended him. "Devil's Snare is not known as Wolfsbane, that's Aconite, and it's not red or spiky, you're probably thinking of Venomous Tentacula, although you don't study that till your second year, and what's this… 'Devil's Snare likes the dark and warmth, it will not grown anywhere too cold.'" He snorted rather nastily "Devil's Snare grows in dark, cold and damp places like caves or dungeons, it hates the warmth. Are you this bad at all of your lessons?"

"No, I just hate Herbology." said Maddie rather testily, crossing out large portions of her essay as Draco extracted her Potions homework from under a textbook. His expression as he did so suggested that he expected it to be just as bad, and as Maddie began correcting her essay she realised that she had just dropped significantly in Draco's estimation. Still she wasn't worried, Herbology might be her worst subject, but Potions was by far her best and she fully expected a better reaction to the essay he was examining now.

"This is good." Draco commented a few moments later, and as she looked round again she noticed he actually looked rather impressed. "Actually this is very good. How do you know this stuff about giving an extra two stirs anti-clockwise and chopping the horned slugs lengthways?"

"It just seemed like it would work better that way, and it did." She shrugged, turning back to her Herbology essay, but secretly feeling rather pleased at the praise from Draco, knowing that it probably wasn't something he handed out very often.

After that he seemed to tire of analysing her work and pulled his own parchment out of his bag and began busily writing something. Rather relieved that she could now finish her essay in peace she pulled her textbook towards her and concentrated on correcting the mistakes Draco had pointed out. She was so absorbed that she didn't even notice Draco and his friend packing their things away to leave until Draco shoved a folded piece of parchment under her nose. She looked up just in time to see him heading out the door with his friend, not even checking back to see if she was reading the parchment.

---------

It was Herbology essay.

Way above her usual standard, but, she noted, rather cleverly written below the standard Draco was clearly capable of writing to.

It was tempting to copy it out. So she did.

Occasionally she changed a word or added in her own phrases, after all she wasn't stupid, but she did hate Herbology and she felt it would be just as stupid to ignore the gift of a free essay. She figured she had a whole 5 years worth of Herbology essays to write and skipping one was probably not going to effect her education, nor was writing it herself going to improve her limited knowledge of Herbology. She'd been writing the wrong thing anyway, and this would save her going through it with Alicia or Sally later. In fact this way probably improved her knowledge of Devil's Snare more than writing her own essay, by the time she had finished copying it out she felt she was something of an expert on the plant and knew she wasn't likely to forget any of the information in a hurry.

After all, it wasn't everyday Draco Malfoy wrote an essay for you.

---------

"He must have been really bored." Was Alicia's comment on the subject as they sat squashed with Sally and Josh in a window alcove in one of the corridors later that same evening.

Sally had urged her to rethink what she was doing, pointing out that it was cheating, and, after reading the essay, also pointing out that she probably wasn't going to get away with it since Professor Sprout would know it was far too good to be Maddie's own work.

Maddie though didn't care. It wasn't about getting away with it, for she was sure she wasn't going to herself, it was more about for once not having to sit in the library for hours tearing her hair out as she tried to work out the care and uses of plants she really didn't care about and was planning to only ever see in an Apothecary's after her fifth year.

"Sally's right you know, it's wrong to cheat." Josh frowned, pushing his glasses up his nose.

"I know." Maddie replied carelessly, causing Josh to throw her a strange look "I just want to see what happens when Professor Sprout reads it."

"She won't be happy." He informed her.

"She'll probably give you a detention." Sally chimed in, obviously glad that someone was taking her side.

She shrugged "Maybe, but I'm still going to hand it in. Aren't you even bit curious to see what happens?"

Josh squirmed slightly, but she could see that the idea did appeal to him "Well… yes… a bit." He admitted finally. Sally looked at him in alarm.

"There you go then. And this way you don't have to worry about getting in trouble yourself or even getting points taken off your own house."

He smiled and Alicia punched him playfully on the arm.

"Hey if you wanted a quiet life you shouldn't have made friends with anyone in Slytherin." She joked.

Sally buried her face in her hands and promptly fell off the ledge.

"I knew it was a bad idea." She groaned from the floor as they all dissolved into fits of laughter.

--------

Josh's prediction turned out to be quite accurate when Professor Sprout handed their essays back to them a few days later. She saved Maddie's till last and came over to have a word whilst everyone else was struggling with their Abyssinian Shrivelfigs.

"A very impressive essay." She said handing it back "Unfortunately I doubt it was your own work."

Maddie decided a direct approach was probably best "Draco helped me." She admitted.

"Draco? Draco Malfoy?" This seemed to be something of a revelation and the Professor looked suddenly confused as to how to proceed. She recovered herself well though. "I would say he did more than just offered a few tips, it looks more like he's actually written large chunks of it. Am I correct?"

Maddie nodded and the Professor sighed.

"Well at least you're honest about it and I really can't imagine how you persuaded Draco to actually write an essay for you. It was enough trouble actually getting him to write his own when he was in my classes."

"Oh I didn't ask him." Maddie piped up, feeling that she at least didn't want to go down as the sort of person who asked other people to do her work. "He just sort of did it."

This earned her a very strange look and another sigh.

"Well this once I shall let it go, but if this happens again you will be in detention." She half turned away and then paused "And you can tell Mr. Malfoy that I am pleased to see that despite his lack of attention during five years of Herbology classes it seems that my teaching was not entirely wasted."

The moment she walked away Alicia and Josh had to smother their giggles in their hands and even Sally was looking rather amused by the whole thing.

"I can't believe you just got away with that!" she exclaimed.

"Me neither." laughed Alicia.

They were still giggling about it later as they reached the Entrance Hall where Josh and Sally left them to head to Potions, whilst they went up to Charms.

--------

Professor Flitwick was late for class, meaning the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins had to wait outside in the corridor for him to turn up. Whilst they were waiting Maddie was well aware of a group of Hufflepuffs whispering and pointing in her general direction, but she did her best to ignore it, despite overhearing several nasty comments about herself.

Her and Alicia were just recounting the events of Herbology for about the tenth time when she overheard something she couldn't ignore.

"Well personally I think it's Sally and Josh's own stupid fault if they do turn against them, they're idiots for even trusting them."

"What did you say?" Maddie snapped, eyes flashing dangerously as she turned to face the owner of the voice. It was a bold faced Hufflepuff who looked down his nose at her rather pompously.

"Nothing that's any of your business." He replied.

"Well I think it is my business if you insult my friends."

"Your friends? Ha! That's a joke, everyone knows your just using them to pick up information on the rest of the school."

"What are you talking about?" she snapped "I'm not using them to get information on anyone. Why would I want to?"

"Everyone knows Slytherins don't make friends with anyone outside their own house unless they want something." The boy huffed, drawing himself up to his full height, which still left him shorter than Maddie.

"Who is this 'everyone' you're talking about? It sounds to me like some stupid theory you and your friends have come up with to add some excitement to your dull lives."

The Hufflepuff flushed angrily and drew his wand. "How dare you talk to me like that!"

Maddie was rather alarmed to see he had drawn his wand, she hadn't expected this to turn into any sort of duel, especially since between them they probably only knew 3 spells, none of which were really that powerful. Not to be caught off guard though, she immediately drew her own wand.

"Oh so it's fine for you to make comments about me and my friends, but as soon as I say anything back suddenly it's not ok?" she hissed, suddenly feeling angrier than she had in a long time.

Alicia tugged on her sleeve. "Just leave it."

Maddie made no attempt to move and neither did the boy, who was now being egged on by his own friends.

"Come on, he's not worth getting into trouble over."

Reluctantly she had to admit that Alicia was right and started to turn away. As she did so the Hufflepuff took his chance and threw a hex in her direction.

"Protego!" Without thinking she had whipped round just in time and blocked the spell, grateful for her fast reflexes. There was sudden uproar in the corridor as she and the boy stood facing each other, members of both houses crowding round to see the duel and calling out support for their own house member.

"Expelliarmus!" Again Maddie blocked the spell, and this time sent one back. To her surprise, the boy, instead of blocking, actually physically dodged the spell and she realised that he didn't know how to block them. Unfortunately this information didn't help much since she was fast running out of spells that she knew.

"Wingardium Leviosa." She yelled. Again the boy dodged, although what effect it would have had on him she didn't know. The spell ricocheted off the wall and streaked down the corridor. Automatically Maddie's eyes followed it and with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach she saw it strike Hermione's bag as she came rushing round the corner.

Standing next to Hermione was Draco, who looked with brief interest at the now levitating rucksack before shouting "Expelliarmus" and causing both Maddie and the boys wands to spin off down the passageway.

The shout caught the attention of the crowd, who turned as one to look at the two prefects, who had obviously been attracted by the noise and were not looking very happy.

"What's going on?" Draco asked striding towards them as Hermione muttered a spell to retrieve her bag from its position near the ceiling.

"She tried to hex me." The boy said wildly, noticing Draco's prefect badge, but obviously not recognising Draco. If he had done Maddie suspected he wouldn't be so quick to accuse one of his house members of anything.

Maddie remained quiet; she simply raised her eyebrows at Draco and got a sort of half smirk in return.

"Did she now." Was all Draco said to the boy, as he summoned back the wands he had relieved them of. The boy looked confused for a moment then seemed to realise he had made some sort of mistake and wisely kept his mouth shut.

"Nice levitating charm there." Draco continued, handing back the wands.

"Indeed." Came Hermione's voice "Although done at an entirely inappropriate moment. No spells to be used in the corridors and certainly no duelling to take place anywhere."

"Exactly, just what I was about to say." said Draco smoothly. "I'm sure they both know duelling in the corridors is wrong."

"Sorry Hermione." Maddie jumped in, as Hermione gave Draco a strange look, "I didn't mean for the spell to hit you." She was in a tricky position she realised, Hermione had been nice to her, and had smiled at her in the corridor when her friends had simply ignored her. She didn't want Hermione to start thinking she was a typical Slytherin like everyone else in the school seemed to think.

"Well," Hermione looked a little surprised at the open apology but rallied well "You shouldn't have been meaning for it to hit anyone. You know duelling is banned."

"I know, but he started it. I was turning away when he tried to curse me so I didn't have a lot of choice." She folded her arms and glared at the boy defiantly as if daring him to contradict this story. He however, still seemed to be rather speechless at the way things were turning out and made no comment. Draco though made a strange noise in his throat and Maddie could swear she saw the corners of Hermione's mouth twitch as she glanced over at him.

"What's your name?" Hermione asked the boy

"Arnold." His voice was little more than a whisper, and the bold look on his face had long since disappeared.

"Is what Maddie says true?" Arnold once again gaped at her as if not quite believing what was happening. "Attacking someone when their back is turned is a cowardly thing to do. Isn't that right Draco?"

Something was going on Maddie realised. Hermione gave a smirk that could have rivalled Draco's as she glanced over at him, whist he resolutely refused to meet her eye, instead becoming very interested in glaring at the first year Hufflepuffs. Hermione though was not giving up and nudged him sharply.

"What?" He snapped as she repeated "Isn't it?" in a way that suggested she was winning some little victory. "Oh yes. Quite right. 20 points from Hufflepuff." He seemed to regain a little composure and glowered at Arnold menacingly "And if I ever catch you attacking a Slytherin again, it'll be twice that many and a visit to your Head of House. Don't you agree _Granger_?" The emphasis on her surname seemed to return Hermione's thoughts to her duties as a prefect.

"Er right," she nodded "and 20 points from Slytherin. You know magic is forbidden in the corridors."

The Prefects departed, leaving Alicia and Maddie to try and work out the significance of what had taken place. It puzzled them all through Charms whilst they attempted to make a pineapple tap dance across the table, and continued to puzzle them until after lunch when they met up with Josh and Sally in the courtyard and spent half an hour laughing at the story of "Draco the Amazing Bouncing Ferret" as retold by Josh, courtesy of his brother.

When the laughter had subsided they all agreed that it was probably best not to let on to Draco that they knew this story, after all it wasn't the sort of incident anyone would want spreading round and upsetting Draco Malfoy was probably not the best idea, seeing as how it would most likely lead to a rather nasty hexing.

Having made this important decision they decided to take a walk down to Hagrid's Hut to see the latest creature he had captured for the older students to study. It turned out to be Knarls.

Alicia caused chaos by offering one half a biscuit she had brought from lunch, and Hagrid's angry shout sent them fleeing back to the castle just in time for their next lesson.

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Ok that's it for this chapter. I know some of you might think Professor Sprout let her off the hook about the essay a bit too easily, but I get the impression from the books that she's quite a kind and forgiving Professor, and to be honest she was so surprised by the idea that Draco had written the essay and that Maddie admitted to it so readily that really any idea of punishment went out the window. Besides she seems like the sort of teacher that would know a gentle approach is sometimes the best way, particularly when the person is willing to admit to what they have done. In the next chapter Maddie gets into yet another fight with someone, although this time it's a rather different situation. Till next time please review!

Love and lollipops,

Sivany.


	6. To Your Defence

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter isn't mine, as I'm sure you're all aware.

**AN: **Another chapter for you all to read. I'm actually thinking of editing the first few chapters and reposting the entire fic since there are a few bits on the earlier chapters I don't like. Also I'm not sure if anyone's still reading this since it's been ages since I updated and I think everyone had given up on it! Let me know what you think and if you are out there still reading this!

**Chapter 5: **To Your Defence

The term passed by slowly and the first years were now well settled into the routine of lessons and homework, when a new excitement suddenly gripped the school. The Quidditch season was starting and the first match was Slytherin vs. Hufflepuff. Slytherin were the clear favourites to win and Draco was basking in the attention that came with being the Seeker who was expected to win them the match.

Maddie too was looking forward to the game; she and Alicia had already got a run down of the team members and their tactics from Draco on a rare moment when he had been sitting alone by the fire, and they now both felt they might actually appreciate the finer points of the game.

It was with great excitement and high hopes that they made their way down to the Quidditch pitch with Sally and Josh on a rather frosty Saturday morning. Almost the whole school had turned out to watch and the four had difficulty finding a good position in the stands. When they finally settled on a spot they were right on the edge of the bulk of the Slytherin supporters, who had managed to take over one end of the stadium. Whilst they waited for the game to begin Josh almost toppled down the stands in his efforts to point out his brother Anthony, who was a little way down from them. When he finally caught his attention they waved enthusiastically but Maddie saw his eyes linger on her Slytherin scarf and his own wave wasn't nearly so enthusiastic.

By the time Sally had managed to drag Josh back into his seat the players were already on the pitch waiting for the game to start. There was a pause whilst the captains shook hands and the balls were released, then the air was filled with green and yellow blurs as the players took off and play began.

Draco swooped straight over to the Slytherin end of the stands, showing off with some tricky twists and turns, before zooming off again to hunt for the Snitch. Maddie however was too busy watching the Chasers to pay much attention to what he was doing; already Hufflepuff had the Quaffle and were flying towards the Slytherin goal hoops ready to score. The Keeper blocked the shot and the Slytherin's let out a cheer, whilst the rest of the school gave a disappointed moan. It was clear to Maddie that everyone who wasn't in Slytherin was hoping they would lose the game, but by now she was used to being a member of the most unpopular house and didn't let it bother her.

The game was a close fought one, Hufflepuff obviously had some talented players and their Beaters were particularly good at stopping Slytherin scoring any goals, meaning they were twenty points ahead when a collective gasp from the crowd drew Maddie's attention to where Draco had gone into a spectacular dive. The Hufflepuff Beaters had also noticed what was going on and lost no time in sending a bludger in his direction. Not until the last minute did Draco notice it and he swerved out of the way just in time, but in those precious few second the Snitch had disappeared and the Slytherins groaned in disappointment.

Maddie and Alicia flopped back down into their seats as the game continued and Hufflepuff scored two more goals.

"Good tactics they're using." commented Josh "Our final match is against them so our teams got plenty of time to adjust their strategies."

"That's really not helping Josh!" snapped Alicia as Slytherin missed yet another goal. Obviously the experience of the older Slytherin players didn't count for much against the young talent of the Hufflepuff team and it seemed that if Draco didn't catch the Snitch the game was well and truly lost.

"I know he boasts about it a lot, but he really can fly." Alicia said critically watching Draco swooping from one end of the pitch to the other. "Shame our Chasers aren't up to much." Much as she wanted to support their team Maddie had to agree, she must have looked rather dejected because Sally smiled at her encouragingly.

"Don't worry, Draco is much better than their Seeker, if he spots the Snitch first you're bound to win." she said trying to sound cheerful. Maddie appreciated the gesture since she knew Sally wasn't exactly Draco's biggest fan.

"Look!" Alicia's sudden shout grabbed their attention and they turned to where she was pointing. Draco was streaking across the pitch with the Hufflepuff Seeker hot on his tail. As he swerved to avoid a bludger Maddie leapt to her feet to cheer along with the rest of the Slytherin's. Even Josh and Sally got caught up in the moment and joined in the cheering enthusiastically.

Within seconds they saw Draco snatch something out of the air and he rose triumphantly over the crowds clasping the Snitch in his hand. The cheer from the Slytherin's almost deafened Maddie as Josh, Sally and Alicia all pulled her into a group hug. Out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of Josh's brother looking none to happy about the result and eyeing her suspiciously as she jumped around with her friends.

She didn't have time to dwell on it then though because Draco was doing a lap of honour over the heads of the Slytherin crowd and waved as he caught her eye. Maddie was amazed to see he was actually grinning properly. Not a brief flicker of a smile nor his usual smirk but a genuinely happy grin, and she suddenly got the impression that Draco was only really free when he was flying.

"Let's go down to the changing rooms and watch the players come out." Alicia suggested as they watched the teams finally troop off the pitch. Maddie was willing and Josh was eager but Sally looked a little unsure, probably about the idea of being so close to Draco, who she seemed to think hexed younger students at every opportunity; an impression that had only been heightened by Alicia's graphic and rather exaggerated retelling of the incident in the common room where Draco had hexed Wilfred.

Sally though was overruled and they quickly pushed through the crowds heading back to the castle and made their way to the changing room exit. Already a crowd of Slytherins had gathered around some of the team who hadn't bothered to get changed and Maddie watched with interest as the Hufflepuffs began to emerge looking dejected.

She was interrupted by Sally clutching at her arm excitedly and turned to see her starring awestruck at Harry and his friends, who were walking past. Sally's excited squeal caused them to turn and notice them and all three gave friendly smiles, whilst Hermione even went so far as to wave in Maddie's direction, a gesture which she returned enthusiastically, rather pleased to get a much more friendly reception than the last time she had seen them together.

Sally was bubbling over with excitement at what had just happened and Maddie was just about to tell her to calm down when she heard a familiar voice calling her name. Sally's exuberant mood disappeared instantly and she actually tried to edge behind Maddie as Draco strode over to them, still smiling and rather more flushed than usual from flying in the cold wind.

He stopped in front of them, casually leaning on his broomstick and cast an appraising glance over Josh and Sally who were both wearing their Ravenclaw scarves.

"This is Sally and Josh." Maddie informed him, wondering what he would think of her making friends outside of her own house, but not really caring if he didn't like it. "This is Draco" she continued stepping aside so Sally could no longer hide behind her and feeling thankful that Josh at least was acting normally. Draco gave them a brief nod of acknowledgment before turning back to Maddie.

"An easy win." He said confidently, still with a smile on his face. He looked nice when he smiled Maddie noticed, and even Sally seemed to have realised he wasn't about hex anyone and had stopped trying to hide behind the others.

"Only because you're a good flyer." Maddie pointed out "If it was down to the Chasers we would have lost." Draco suddenly wrinkled his nose as if there was a nasty smell about.

"We could do with some new talent in the team really. They keep playing the same people instead of trying out new players, luckily most of them are leaving next year though and when I'm Quidditch Captain the rest might find themselves off the team as well. First thing I'll be doing is holding try-outs for new players." He looked at her thoughtfully "You could try out, you'll be in your second year then."

"Me?" Maddie laughed "I'm not really that good at flying. Alicia is though, I reckon she'd make a great Chaser." Next to her Alicia grinned as Draco turned his attention onto her.

"I'll remember that for next year." He was obviously confident of getting the position of Quidditch Captain and seemed to be looking forward to it. Maddie had never known him talk so enthusiastically about anything, she was used to the bored drawl and look of distain that he used for most topics.

"You play Ravenclaw next don't you?" Maddie was surprised to hear Josh speak to someone who he had referred to as "a nasty piece of work" at the beginning of the year.

"Yes" Draco raised his eyebrows a little as he replied, obviously sharing Maddie's surprise at being spoken to by Josh.

"Our Seeker's called Cho Chang, apparently she's very good." Maddie held her breath hoping Draco didn't take offence at Josh's comment and was relieved when after a moment's pause he actually laughed.

"Not as good as me." He grinned cockily "Not as good as Potter either, much as I hate to say it. Gryffindor are the one's who always cause trouble." Josh looked a little put out by this assessment of their Seeker's Quidditch skills and didn't say anything else as Draco looked him over critically.

"You've got a brother." Draco commented after a few moments.

"Yes. Anthony." Josh seemed to forget the slight on his Quidditch team and beamed at Draco, obviously pleased that he knew his brother who he looked up to tremendously.

"He's in my year, never spoken to him though." He nodded, then turned to Maddie as someone behind called out his name "See you later." He grinned at her and gave the others a curt nod before striding off and leaving Maddie to a outburst of comments from Josh and Sally about how he wasn't nearly as bad as they expected and was actually quite nice. This assessment made her think that they had probably missed the point of much of the conversation, but rather pleased that they were no longer telling her to stay away from him decided not to point out that he had merely tolerated them because they were with her. Besides she couldn't think of a way to say it without sounding arrogant, it wasn't that she was being arrogant, it was just the way things were with Draco and whether she agreed with how he acted or not, she was willing to put up with it in exchange for his conversation.

---------

Josh had clearly told his brother that he had spoken to Draco because a few days later Maddie's owl brought her an unsigned note bearing the words:

_Stay away from my brother._

She showed it to Alicia, who agreed that they shouldn't mention it to Josh, and then threw it in the fire when she got back to the common room. No one told her who she could and couldn't be friends with.

Apparently he hadn't said anything to Josh because when she saw him later that day in Herbology he chatted away with her as normal and over the next week they continued to meet up with Sally and Josh as usual to study in the library or visit Hagrid's Hut to stare over the fence at whatever creature he had captured that day. She had almost forgotten all about the letter from Anthony when she saw him again ten days later.

They had found a quiet area of the courtyard to practice the disarming charms that Professor Snape had taught them in Defence Against the Dark Arts. It was probably against the rules but they needed the practice and Alicia had managed to convince Sally that as long as they said 'Expelliarmus' quietly instead of shouting it the Professors would never even notice what they were doing. Maddie was getting quite good and was just about to have another go at disarming Josh when she saw Anthony staring at them as he walked past. As she caught his eye he glared at her and frowned before hurrying off to catch up with his friends.

Maddie wasn't usually one to be scared by threats, but she hadn't liked the look in Anthony's eye and over the next few days her and Alicia seemed to bump into him alarmingly regularly, which she was sure was not a coincidence. Convinced he was looking for a moment to threaten her in person she shared her worries with Alicia who agreed it was suspicious but thought that at worst he would shout a bit and they could just carry on ignoring him. She wished she could believe Alicia but the look in Anthony's eye hadn't been one of someone who was just going to shout a bit, he had looked at her almost as if she wasn't human and definitely not worthy of speaking to his brother.

Her fears were realised a few days later when she was coming back late from the library. It was nearing the time when the younger students had to be in bed and the corridors were almost empty as she hurried towards the dungeons. She was just turning down the corridor that led to the main staircase when she heard rapid footsteps behind her and a moment later someone grabbed her arm roughly and pushed her towards the wall.

"You!" An angry voice shouted, as Maddie's looked up into the face of her attacker to find it was none other than Anthony Goldstein. "I told you to stay away from my brother."

"Why should I?" Maddie returned defiantly, feeling a lot braver than she expected and determined not to let him push her around.

"I don't want him hanging around with Slytherin scum like you." He growled nastily "Giving him ideas about how that creep Malfoy is actually nice, and encouraging him to break the rules. I know what you Slytherins are like and I'm not having my brother become tainted with your evil ways."

"You can't tell me who I can and can't be friends with." Maddie spat back her eyes flashing angrily as she glared up at him. "Josh is nice and I like him and I'm not going to avoid him just because you say so." She pushed away from the wall and was in the process of walking away when she saw Anthony pull out his wand.

"Perhaps a hex might help you to see things more clearly." He said aiming the wand at her "Now lets see which one to use?" Obviously he didn't expect a mere first year to fight back but she wasn't about to wait around for him to decide what to hex to use. There was only one spell she knew that would be of any use, and before Anthony realised what she was doing she had whipped out her wand and used Expelliarmus. Taken by surprise he had no time to block the spell and his wand flew out of his hand and careered down the passageway past Maddie's head.

"Think you're clever do you?" sneered Anthony "I suppose I should have been prepared for that seeing as how I saw you practising it on my brother the other day." He advanced towards her slightly "I'm willing to bet quite a few Galleons that that was the only useful duelling spell you know."

Realising he was right and that even without a wand he was much bigger than her, Maddie wondered if she should make a run for it.

"What are you going to do?" She asked boldly, deciding to stand her ground. This seemed to make him angrier and he pushed her roughly against the wall.

"Slytherin scum." He spat "I don't usually hit girls but I might make an exception for a slimy little snake like you." As he raised his fist Maddie panicked, thinking that there wasn't much she could do except try to dodge his punch and hope someone came along the corridor soon to help her. Feeling her wand slipping in her now sweaty palms she raised it in sheer desperation and shouted the first spell that came into her head.

"REPELLIUS!"

Anthony flew backwards across the corridor and his head thunked against the wall, knocking him unconscious and causing him to collapse in a heap opposite her. Breathing hard Maddie was just wondering whether it was best to run away and pretend nothing had happened or go and fetch a professor when she heard more footsteps. Hermione, Harry and Ron came round the corner and were greeted by the sight of her standing, wand raised, next to an unconscious Anthony.

This didn't look good.

---------

"What's going on?" Hermione cried in horror, rushing forwards.

"What did you do to him?" Harry snapped glaring down at her as Ron went to check on Anthony.

They thought it was her fault she realised. She was a Slytherin and Slytherins had a bad reputation, and now she had been found standing with her wand raised next to an unconscious fifth year they were putting the blame on her.

She considered her options, and then started to cry.

"He..he attacked me!" she sobbed, covering her face with her hands "He called me scum and told me to stay away from his brother. He doesn't like me being friends with Josh." Almost at once the three friend's faces changed completely. Hermione wrapped her arms around her comfortingly, whilst Harry and Ron just looked shocked.

"He attacked you?" They said in unison and Maddie was pleased to find that bursting into tears had completely changed their minds about what had happened, just as she had hoped it would.

"He was going to hex me." She wailed, sobbing harder "Then he was going to punch me. He even sent me a threatening letter last week but I burnt it because I wanted to stay friends with Josh." Ron and Harry looked even more shocked and Hermione dug out some tissues for her before turning to the others.

"He'll need to go to the Hospital Wing," she said "And we'll have to report this to the Professors, he can't go around threatening younger students."

"I can't believe he'd do something like this." Harry shook his head, looking horrified "I always got on well with him. Are you sure he was threatening you?"

"He said I was Slytherin scum." Maddie wailed again, breaking into fresh sobs to remove all doubt from their minds. Hermione handed her a fresh tissue and patted her sympathetically as she wiped her eyes.

"Maddie?"

They all turned to find Draco had appeared at the Entrance Hall end of the corridor and Maddie hastily tried to pretend she had never been crying. It was all very well faking tears for Hermione's benefit but being caught crying by Draco was definitely not something she wanted to happen.

"What happened?" Draco was already striding down the corridor towards them and instead of his usual emotionless expression Maddie was surprised to notice he was actually looking at her in concern. The look on the other's faces told her that Draco showing concern for anyone except himself was a new event in their experience as well.

"What did you do to her Potter?" Maddie had been too busy being surprised to answer and Draco now rounded angrily on Harry. "Don't tell me you're picking on first years now?" Maddie was a little disconcerted by this comment and felt obliged to stand up for Harry, despite being slightly annoyed that he had assumed it was all her fault in the first place.

"It's not him. It was Anthony." She explained pointing to where Anthony was now groaning and obviously coming round. Draco looked at him suspiciously, then at Harry, Ron and Hermione in turn before looking back at Maddie.

"That's your friend Josh's brother isn't it? The one in Ravenclaw?" Maddie noticed Hermione looked rather surprised at Draco's knowledge of her friends and had to stop herself from grinning by sniffing and wiping her eyes again.

"What did he do?"

"Apparently he attacked her." Hermione said still giving Draco a strange look, "Are you related?"

"What?" Draco snapped giving her a rather scathing look and turning back to Maddie. "He attacked you?"

"He said he didn't want his brother hanging around with Slytherin scum like me." she explained for the second time "He tried to hex me but I disarmed him, then he was going to punch me so I just shouted 'repellius' because it was the first spell that came into my head and he hit the wall and that's when Hermione came along."

"He called you Slytherin scum?" Up until now Draco had looked slightly annoyed by the whole thing, but now his face twisted angrily.

"That's what she is, all you Slytherins are. My brother doesn't need her setting a bad example." Anthony had finally come round properly and before anyone could say anything Draco had marched over and dragged him to his feet by his robes.

"You're right." he hissed "He doesn't need her to set a bad example, his brother does a good enough job of that already. You attacked a first year who has never done anything to you and never done anything to your brother except be friends with him and that means the only person standing in this corridor who's scum is you." He emphasised the last bit by making sure Anthony's head bounced off the wall again. "You don't even know her." He was shouting now. "You attacked and were about to punch someone you've never even spoken too, how would you know if she's a bad influence or not!"

"She's Slytherin." Anthony shouted back angrily as if this explained everything and began trying to push Draco's hands away from his robes. Hermione, Ron and Harry were simply standing looking rather stunned at the whole scene.

"Have you any idea how stupid that sounds?" Draco spat "You're a pathetic lowlife and I'm not wasting anymore time on you, but if I ever hear you've so much as looked at Maddie the wrong way in future, I swear, I will personally see to it that you never walk again!" With that he threw Anthony back against the wall and turned away.

"Let's go." He said "I'm sure Granger will sort that him out."

"Thanks." Maddie smiled at the three stunned sixth years and turned to go.

"Don't worry I'll make sure me and my brother stay well away from her in future, she's probably trying to get him to join her band of miniature Death Eaters anyway." Anthony growled.

There was a sudden sickening crack as Draco's fist broke Anthony's nose.

The last thing Maddie saw as Draco guided her away down the passageway was Anthony's nose spurting with blood as a very angry looking Harry and Ron dragged him off to the hospital wing whilst an even angrier looking Hermione stalked off to find a Professor.

"They wonder why you're in Slytherin." Draco began when they were out of earshot "They wouldn't wonder if they knew what I know."

"What's that?" asked Maddie a little confused.

"You're not really crying."

There was a pause and then Maddie laughed.

"Well they were blaming me for it all, they thought I'd attacked him!" she exclaimed as Draco grinned knowingly at her, obviously finding the whole thing slightly amusing.

"You're definitely Slytherin through and through." He observed, "If you have any more trouble off him let me know. I assume you're not going to stop being friends with Josh."

"Not if he'll still be friends with me." Maddie said gloomily her smile fading as she realised Anthony might tell his brother to stay away from her, or that Josh might hate her for putting his brother in the hospital wing even if he had attacked her first. Losing Josh's friendship would probably cost her Sally's as well she realised even more gloomily, Sally might be the complete opposite of her and Alicia but Maddie still liked her and considered her a good friend. She didn't want to lose two friends because of this silly incident.

Draco was now looking down at her appraisingly; he wasn't smiling anymore but at least the cold, detached look hadn't returned to his face.

"If I was Josh I'd stay friends with you." He said as they reached the common room entrance "Now get to bed, I've got Prefect duties to do."

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When I chose Anthony to be Josh's older brother in Ravenclaw I didn't realise he was one of the members of the DA, in fact I couldn't remember him being mentioned in the books so I thought she would be a fairly unknown character. If I'd known he was in the DA I could have chosen someone else instead, but it was too late when I found out since I'd mentioned Josh's brother was called Anthony right from the second chapter. He was a little cruel to Maddie in this chapter, but prejudices can make people do some strange and out of character things. Anyway let me know what you think!

Love and lollipops,

Sivany


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